We The Hunted
by Professormalebs
Summary: Shenanigans from the first students of Beacon Academy and their friends. Reposted and abandoned


**Chapter 1: Welcome to Beacon Academy**

* * *

 _Eighty years before the Battle of Beacon_

It was ironic, Brandaris Tyrian thought, how invisible he was without his uniform. Then again, in the crowd of people around him, he was bound to be unnoticed. Most considered it an old wives' tale, but there was a truth in the statement that those with activated auras could see the manifestations of people's souls that surrounded them. When he had been a member of the Vale police, Brandaris had seldom seen anyone with an aura that had been unlocked, aside from the occasional warrior passing through the city. Here however, he was surrounded by people glowing with just about every color in the visible spectrum.

With few exceptions, Brandaris observed that the men and women around him were all fairly young, in their early twenties or even late teens, by the looks of it. It was hardly a surprise. Beacon Academy had been advertised as a school for those who wished to be warriors, and most who were older were already battle hardened soldiers by now. And with the war having just ended, the world needed some peacekeepers.

* * *

Drago von Flammen glared at the mass of people around him, before sighing in frustration. The weather in Vale wasn't too bad, but compared to the colder climes of the North, it was a little warm for his tastes. However, it was not the temperature that got on his nerves so much as the crowd.

The Treaty of Atlas had only been signed a few short months ago, and though the four nations were officially at peace, ten years of animosity between the two sides were not so easily wiped away. If the war hadn't ended when it had, Drago would likely have met many of the young men and women around him not on the grounds of a school, but on the battlefield. Even now, in spite of what his parents said, he wasn't sure that he was safe here, in the capital of the country his had waged war upon.

"Something on your mind?"

Drago nearly jumped out of his skin at the whisper in his ear. He leapt away from the voice and spun around to face its owner, heart pounding. His hand went to the hilt of his weapon, and he began to summon his Semblance.

To his surprise however, the person who had snuck up on him hadn't even moved, nor was she about to attack him. Drago looked around quickly; fortunately no one had noticed his paranoid outburst.

"You alright there?" The girl asked.

Drago straightened and was about to answer, but once he got a good look at her, his haughty response died in his throat. The girl before him cocked her head to the side, her warm hazel eyes like pools of melted chocolate captivating Drago's gaze. It was a good thing too, because otherwise the boy's eyes might have dipped a little lower and then he would have been done for. As it was, her beautiful eyes and strawberry gold hair were distracting enough.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." Drago managed to choke out. "You just startled me, that's all."

"Oh!" The girl squeaked. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think-"

"It's alright." Drago waved the apology aside and held out his hand. "I'm Drago von Flammen."

"Mariette Apollo." The girl shook Drago's hand, impressing him with the strength of her grip.

* * *

Rhea Cerulian had only ever lived in small villages, first on her birthplace of Ten Seas Island, and later in Granite Hills. Kristyna had told her stories of the towering skyscrapers and bustling streets of the busy cities, but as the port of Vale came into view, the short girl couldn't help but gawp at the sight.

"Close your mouth, you look like a fish." Beside her, a boy with messy black hair grinned, then yelped as Rhea reached up to swat at his head. "Hey, that hurts."

"Aw, did I hurt the poor widdle baby?" Rhea rolled her eyes as her companion pouted. "Seriously Kaine, I've seen you shake off a charging Boarbatusk like it was nothing."

"The Boarbatusk wasn't as vicious as you."

"Oy."

The two of them lapsed into silence as the steamboat they were on chugged closer to the docks. As the massive ship floated to an empty space by the pier and its engines died down, Kaine Oune spoke. "Well, this is it."

* * *

"Astarte!"

The young woman in question looked up from her book. "Yes, mother?"

"Astarte dear, you were supposed to leave almost ten minutes ago!" Mrs. Callampe continued on in this vein for quite some time before she realized her daughter wasn't listening and threw up her hands. "Fine. Be late for the first day of school. I don't care."

Sure you don't. Astarte rolled her amber colored eyes. It was true that school was supposed to begin in a little less than an hour, but she figured that if she ran, she could make it in time. And if she didn't, then it was no real loss. Astarte went back to reading the final few chapters of her book.

* * *

Deynares had trouble recognizing herself in the mirror with pink hair. Which was a good thing, she supposed, since she was supposed to be incognito. It was impressive, how a simple dye job could hide her identity so well. That, and the change of wardrobe. Between the two, she looked nothing like the girl who had run away from home just a few months earlier.

Picking up her bag and shield, Deynares looked around the bare inn room she'd been living in. Satisfied that nothing was being left behind, she headed downstairs to return the key to the innkeeper and out into the streets of Vale. Looking up, she could see the spires of the new school that had been built at the eastern edge of the city. It would likely take here a while to get there on foot.

* * *

"What a dump." Sakura Murasaki sneered at the sight of the crowded plaza. There were people from all corners of Remnant, but the majority of the students were clearly native to the kingdom of Vale.

"Be nice, Sakura." Her twin brother, Nao, chided. "And besides, the school is new."

"I was talking about the people." Sakura huffed. "Can you believe we have to go to school with these..."

"Don't finish that sentence." Nao advised. "You forget that these people are just as dangerous and trained as we are, or else they wouldn't be here."

"You don't know that." Sakura snapped. "For all you know, they could be pretending."

Nao snorted. "Do you really believe that? Remember, this school is for those who want to be warriors."

"You mean Protectors."

"What's the difference?" Nao snorted. "Whatever you call us, we'll still be the baddest of asses."

"That was dumb."

* * *

"Your attention please." A loud voice boomed over the school grounds, effectively quelling the hubbub of conversation between the assembled teenagers. The source of the voice, a tall man in an emerald suit with shaggy silver hair, stood at the entrance to the school. Sakura and Nao, who were among the closest to the man, noticed that he looked quite sprightly for someone with a grey mane. "I am Ozpin, headmaster of this school."

"Many of you have traveled from faraway lands. Some of you further than most." Deynares felt a prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Though she was standing on the far side of the plaza, the pink-haired girl couldn't help but feel as though the man's words were directed toward her.

"Some of you have known great tragedy during your lifetimes. Peace is unfortunately only a recent commodity." Kaine and Rhea, standing in the midst of the crowd, couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Others of you hail from closer shores, and have been lucky enough to grow up without knowing true sorrow." Drago's brow furrowed, wondering if Ozpin knew of his background.

"Regardless of your pasts, you are all here for a reason." Brandaris shifted on his feet. Where was the man going with this?

"By coming here, in search of training and knowledge, you have dedicated yourselves to a noble purpose, the protection of all people in Remnant." Astarte stared dead-eyed at Ozpin from the edge of the crowd, having only gotten there at the last minute.

"It is a purpose that transcends borders and philosophies. There is no room for past conflicts here. You will have no time for such petty disputes." At this, some angry muttering broke out in the crowd. Nearly everyone knew someone who had fought or died in the war. Who was Ozpin to call that a petty dispute? His next words however, shut everyone up.

"Instead, you will be fighting to survive. The world we live in is a dark one, and there will be no room here for those who cannot put aside their differences to work together. So if you cannot do so, feel free to leave."

Slowly, but gradually, a steady stream of people trickled out of the plaza, grumbling angrily. Quite a few people remained, however.

"On that note, welcome to Beacon Academy."

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Into the Wild**

* * *

The following morning, the students of Beacon Academy gathered at the top of a cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. Ozpin stood in front of the assembled teenagers. "Many of you have already been trained in the arts of war. This is only the first test, but the deadliest. It is not too late to turn back."

Unlike the previous day however, not a single person moved. "Very well then. Your task is to collect a relic from an abandoned temple in the northern end of the forest and bring it back to the top of the cliff. Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path, or you will be killed. However, you will not be facing this trial alone. I believe teamwork is a quality of paramount importance. The first person you make eye contact with in the forest once you land will be your partner for the remainder of your time at Beacon."

Partners? Astarte groaned internally. She toyed with the idea of leaving now and going home, but at the same time, she wasn't entirely happy with the idea of returning to her parents' nagging.

"Once you have collected your relics, two sets of partners will be paired into a team of four members. Like the partners, they will remain together for the rest of your time as students."

Ozpin took a sip from the mug in his hand. "Well then, what are you waiting for?" And with that, the gathered students were launched into the air above the forest.

* * *

Falling through the air was hardly an unusual sensation for Kaine, as his training had featured quite a bit of it. He concentrated, and the air around him began to glimmer with sparks of silver. His downward descent actually sped up, and the young man curled up into a ball.

The earth-shattering impact flattened a large Ursa and sent several small trees flying. Where the Grimm had once stood, there now only remained a smoking crater of scorched dirt. Completely unscathed, Kaine climbed out of the indent in the forest floor and looked around. Ozpin had said that their objective was in the northern end of the Emerald Forest, so that was as good of a direction as any to head in.

A loud screech pierced the air and Kaine whirled around, drawing his twin weapons from his belt. To his surprise, no Nevermore or Griffon came down from the sky, but a small dragon of golden light, with a girl on its back.

Deynares hopped nimbly off her construct, allowing it to dissipate. She grinned at the boy standing by a crater. "Hi, I'm Deynares!"

"Kaine." The boy looked unimpressed.

"So." Deynares tossed her bright pink hair back. "I guess we're partners, then?"

"I guess." Kaine holstered Ultor Maul. "Shall we get moving then?"

"Nice to meet you too." Deynares grumbled. "Gosh, don't you have any manners?"

"Not that I know of."

* * *

For about the first fifteen seconds of air time, Rhea was close to panicking. Her Semblance, Reflection, only protected damage inflicted upon her by an intentional attack. Breaking her leg on the forest floor probably would not count.

Banishing her fears, Rhea took out her weapon, Battoujutsu. Unsheathing the dual short blades, she stabbed them deep into the trunk of a giant tree, slowing her flight. Her tiny frame whipped around the tree in a wide spiral, eventually landing upon the forest floor. Rhea looked around quickly, making sure no Grimm were about to sneak up on her.

Once she was sure the coast was clear, she set off in a quick run, darting through the trees and bushes in a blur. At several points, she caught a glimpse of black skin and exposed bone, and veered off to avoid the Grimm. She could hold her own against them, but there was no sense in wasting energy on a pointless fight. Rhea wondered where Kaine had ended up, and if he had found a partner yet. Speaking of which, she had yet to meet a single other person in the forest, which was curious considering that there had been close to four hundred people on the clifftop.

A series of small explosions above Rhea's head brought her back to reality. Looking up, she noticed a tall boy with wavy purple hair running through the air. Well, running was a general term; every "step" the boy took was punctuated with a small burst of Dust fire from the soles of his feet that propelled him through the sky.

Eventually though, the boy landed on a large tree branch thirty feet above Rhea's head. He took a moment to catch his breath before leaping straight down to the ground. He waited until he was almost at the ground until he activated the Wind Dust canisters inside his boots, and landed as lightly as a feather.

"Impressive." Rhea commented.

"Thank you." The boy shook out both of his legs; they were starting to cramp a little. "Wanna be partners?"

"I don't suppose we have a choice." Rhea pointed out. "We're supposed to partner up with the first person we make eye contact with."

"True." The boy stuck out his hand. "I'm Brandaris. Brandaris Tyrian."

"Rhea Cerulian."

* * *

Drago was slightly lost. He had a good idea of which way he was headed, but had no clue which part of the forest he was in. For all he knew, he could be on the southern edge of the woods. Grumbling loudly about the crazy headmaster, the boy was picking his way through a particularly rocky part of the forest when he heard a loud roar behind him.

Drawing his weapon, Drago turned to face his would-be attacker, a tortoise-shaped Grimm the size of a car. "Great, a Tetsudo." Drago switched Bleeding Chaos from longsword form to shotgun with a flick of his wrist. Taking aim, he pointed the tip of the weapon at the Tetsudo's snapping jaws. "Hold still..."

Just as Drago was about to pull the trigger however, the air crackled with static before splitting open with concussive force. Drago was almost deafened and knocked off his feet by the blast. A bright flash of light had seared itself into his eyes and it took a few moments before he was able to see again.

When his vision cleared however, Drago was astonished to see the dead Tetsudo crumbling into ash, its near unbreakable shell cracked in half. In the midst of the destruction stood a girl with a blank expression. Her weapon, a strange looking sword with a blade split into two held loosely in her hand, was crackling with electricity.

"What the hell?!" Drago shouted as he strode through the destruction. "You could have gotten me with that blast!"

"So?" The girl turned her head slowly to look at Drago. Her gaze held no emotion other than a sort of resigned indifference. "I killed the Grimm, didn't I?"

Drago sputtered for a bit in outrage before answering. "I had it handled! There was no need for you to come in and blow up the whole place!"

"Get used to it, partner." The girl turned away from Drago and looked around. "This way is north."

The color drained from Drago's face as he realized what the girl had said. " %$#!" He ran after the girl. "Wait, I don't even know your name!" Why couldn't he have gotten someone sane for a partner, like Mariette?

A/N: Eighty years ago, Remnant was a much darker place than the present day. The world had just been through a horrific war, with hundreds of thousands killed during the fighting. Tensions are still high, and people are afraid that the peace won at the final battle is only temporary. Consequently, the creatures of Grimm have a much stronger presence, and species that were wiped out by the time of the Battle of Beacon are still extant. The Tetsudo, or snapping turtle, is only one of many different types of Grimm that you will see in this story.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Teaming Up**

* * *

"Are we seriously going to just ignore the fact that you've been leading us in the completely wrong direction!" Drago yelled at Astarte.

"Yes." Astarte pushed past a springy tree branch that whipped back to smack her partner in the face after she moved through. "And it's your fault, you should have made sure we were going the right way."

Drago despaired for his future survival. Forget doing well in school, he would be lucky to just live through the next four years with this sociopath as his partner. A loud rustling noise to his left startled him, causing the boy to leap away with a small yelp.

"Nice of you to move." Astarte remarked before pointing her weapon at the source of the noise and unleashing a bolt of searing lightning.

BOOM!

Drago had the wherewithal to cover his ears this time around, and looked away from the blinding flash. Opening his eyes, he was more than a little surprised to see two people standing in the smoldering remnants of the bushes.

"A little trigger happy, aren't ya?" One of them, a boy with messy black hair, swatted at the soot that covered his leather jacket.

"That was awesome!" The other, a girl with bright pink hair down to her shoulders, whooped with delight. "Can we do that again?"

"Let's not." The boy grunted. "Save it for the Grimm."

"So, you guys manage to get your relics yet?" Drago interjected as he saw Astarte raise her weapon.

"No." The girl stepped up to Drago and Astarte. "Have you?"

"Drago got us lost." Astarte muttered glibly.

"I did not-" Her partner began, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Whatever. We're going the right way now, and we have to get to the temple anyway, so you want to work together?"

"Ooh, like a team?" The pink-haired girl jumped up and down. "I'm so down for this!"

"Yeah, sure." The boy nodded. "So what're your names? I'm Kaine, and this is Deynares."

"Drago." Drago shook Kaine's hand and looked over to see Astarte trying to spear a butterfly with her sword. "... And that's Astarte."

* * *

"How much longer do you think it'll take to get to the temple?" Rhea asked.

Brandaris pondered the question for a few moments, trying to remember at what part of the forest they were in. "Well, I landed almost right in the center of the woods... Depending on how fast we travel, I think it'll take about thirty minutes to get to the northern edge of the Emerald Forest.

"That's good news."

"But, you know, we have to get back to the clifftop afterward, and that might take an hour or so."

"Darn-" Rhea's reply was cut off by the roars of a Grimm, and the noise of someone shouting. "Sounds like someone needs help! C'mon!" She sprinted off in the direction of the noise, Brandaris hot on her heels.

When they arrived at the source of the sound however, they were met with the sight of a clearing filled with a large number of dissipating body parts and decapitated heads. In the midst of all the dead Grimm were a boy and a girl, both with ice-white hair and bright blue eyes. The boy wore a large round shield, while the girl held a katana engraved with snowflakes.

"What're you looking at?" The girl demanded as soon as she noticed Rhea and Brandaris looking at her.

"Just thought you might need a hand, is all." Brandaris mumbled.

"Hh."

"Be nice, Sakura." The boy hefted the shield around to put it on his back. "I'm Nao Murasaki, by the way."

"I'm Rhea, and this is Brandaris. Are you guys-"

"Yes, we're twins." Sakura snapped. "Now, are you two just going to stand there, or can we get moving?"

Rhea opened her mouth to snap back, but she was interrupted by a rustling noise from the far side of the clearing.

Faster than a blink of an eye, Nao had slid his shield from his back to his left arm, while Sakura brought her saber to an attacking position. Rhea pulled her short staff from opposite ends, splitting it down the middle to reveal twin short blades. Brandaris didn't move, but a blade popped out from the side of his left boot and began to spin rapidly, until it seemed a single disc of metal.

The four teenagers stood together in the clearing, ready to attack whatever Grimm came crashing through the foliage. The rustling noise grew louder and louder until a beautiful girl with reddish gold hair burst through the trees. "Is everyone okay? I heard shouting and came as quickly as I could!"

To Rhea's astonishment, Nao dropped his shield and fell to his knees before the girl.

"Will you marry me?!"

This was followed closely after by Sakura smacking her twin brother squarely in the head with the hilt of her sword. "Dumbass." She turned to the girl as Nao fell flat on his face. "Who're you?"

"Marietta Apollo." The girl smiled and held out her hand to shake.

Sakura ignored the offered limb. "Whatever." She kicked Nao. "Get up, you lovelorn moron. We need to get to the temple."

"You're not very nice, are you?" Marietta sighed.

"What's your point?" Sakura grunted as she hauled her brother to his feet. Nao for his part was still staring at Marietta with a dumbstruck expression.

Rhea and Brandaris sat in the background and watched the two girls argue back and forth. "Do you think we should stop them?" Rhea said after a while.

"No no. I'm enjoying this." Brandaris grinned.

"Don't touch me!" Marietta smacked Sakura's hands away after the white-haired girl poked her in the chest.

"What? I'm sure you don't mind me copping a feel." Sakura's lips curled. "After all, I can't be the first, right?"

"HOW DARE YOU!" The sound that came out of Marietta Apollo's mouth didn't seem entirely human, and her eyes flashed fire.

Suddenly, Sakura found herself pinned to the ground, in the center of a shallow crater of cracked earth. Immense gravity pressed down on her, making it difficult for her to breathe. She could feel herself sinking into the forest floor, small stones and sticks poking her back. If she didn't have an activated Aura, Sakura suspected she might have ended up a messy stain on the ground.

Marietta flounced off into the woods, and Nao cried pitifully as the beautiful girl faded from view. Rhea and Brandaris stood with their jaws on the floor. "Did that just happen?" Rhea managed to ask.

"That was the most powerful Semblance I've ever seen." Brandaris breathed. "To manipulate gravity like that... damn."

* * *

"I'm telling you, I am not a girl!" Drago shouted for what seemed like the fiftieth time as their impromptu team made their way through the Emerald Forest. "I just have long hair."

"But why do you have such long hair?" Kaine asked, also for what seemed like the fiftieth time. "My sister has shorter hair than you."

"You should really let your hair down." Deynares commented. She reached for Drago's hair tie only to have the boy duck away.

"Do not touch my hair tie."

"Are we there yet?" Astarte whined. This was not the first time she had asked this question either.

"Yes!" Kaine shouted.

"Don't encourage her, Kaine." Deynares punched her partner in the shoulder.

"Ow! No, really! We're at the temple!" Kaine pointed through a gap in the trees, where a set of stone columns were visible.

* * *

A/N: Thanks to Dragosviel for being the beta reader (and illustrator) for this story. If you couldn't guess, Drago is named after him. Speaking of names...

We the Hunted takes place just after the Great War, and the Color Naming Rule that has become a very established tradition eighty years later is not as present during the time of this story. Moreover, all the characters are about seventeen or eighteen, meaning they were born almost ten years prior to the start of the Great War, and presumably before the Color Naming Rule was even conceived. Hence, the rather ordinary names like Brandaris, Rhea, etc. Despite this, their full names still adhere to the Rule.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Alliance of Relics**

* * *

"We're at the temple!" Kaine pointed through a gap in the trees to a circle of stone columns. He turned to his companions only to find that they were nowhere to be found. "Uh, guys?"

"Hurry up, Kaine!" Deynares called from the columns. "We're waiting on you here!"

"What the-?" Kaine mumbled as he ran over to the stone pillars. How had they all snuck past him without him noticing?

Drago looked around the circle. Arranged in a smaller circle were a series of small pedestals, each with a small golden statue of a Grimm. Seeing as there were no empty pedestals, it seemed obvious they were the first to reach the temple. Drago shuddered, wondering what had possessed the headmaster to choose such awful relics.

"Let's go." Astarte grabbed Drago by his collar and began dragging him away.

"Hey! Let go of me!" Drago wrestled himself free of his partner's grip. "We need to get a relic first."

"Already got one." Astarte brandished a statue of a Phantom under the boy's nose, making him flinch away.

Meanwhile, Kaine and Deynares had decided to pick a relic at random, and picked up a statue of an Ursa. "Hope we don't run into one of these." Kaine remarked.

"There's another Ursa." Deynares pointed with the relic. "Actually, there's two of each one."

"That must be how they make teams." Kaine guessed. "The pairs with matching relics get put together."

"So, you wanna wait and see who picks up the other Ursa relic?" The pink haired girl asked.

Her partner raised an eyebrow. "Once they meet you, I'm sure everyone will steer clear of that statue."

"Meanie." Deynares kicked at Kaine, forcing him to move out of the way.

"You guys coming?" Drago called from the forest edge. "Astarte wants to get going."

"What's your hurry?" Kaine called. "Don't you want to see who'll be on your team?"

"No."

* * *

Brandaris, Rhea, Sakura, and Nao trekked through the forest silently. After a heated argument between Sakura and Rhea, the four of them decided to simply refrain from speaking with one another. Besides a brief glimpse of a boy wielding a large hammer, they didn't come across anyone else. Privately, Nao felt this was a good thing, as his sister's acerbic nature got her into more fights than one would consider healthy.

Eventually however, they arrived at what had to be the temple. A stone circle stood in the center of the clearing, with free standing pillars surrounding it. Just outside, were four teenagers who Nao didn't recognize. Apparently however, Rhea did.

"Kaine!" She called to the small group by the temple.

The boy with messy black hair waved. "What took you guys so long?"

"You know each other?" Brandaris asked.

"He's my brother." Rhea explained. "Adopted."

"So...welcome." A boy (or girl? Nao couldn't tell with the long black and red hair.) gestured at the temple. "There are two of each relic, and we think that the pairs that choose the same statue become a team."

"Well, which one did you choose, so I know not to pick that one?" Sakura quipped as she strode into the stone circle.

"The Phantom, but consider this." Astarte flicked a piece of dust from her clothes. "You could be paired with some random idiots who might get you killed, or with me and dimwit Drago here, who have managed to survive thus far."

"Oh, I like her." Nao chuckled as he elbowed past his sister to pick up the other Phantom statue. "This is gonna be a lot of fun."

"But whoever brings back the other statue to the clifftop is clearly competent enough to get here and back." Brandaris argued as he took hold of the second Ursa statue. "Still, I'd rather go with someone I know than a stranger."

"Aren't we all strangers here?" Deynares laughed.

A cracking noise drew their attention. One by one, the teenagers turned to face the source of the noise: a black writhing mass, with nine serpentine heads. Clawed limbs crushed saplings underfoot like toothpicks. The creature was easily three stories tall.

"A King Hydra." Astarte mused. "Those are pretty rare."

"Can we kill it?" Kaine gulped.

"It's pretty hard to." Astarte replied. "Every time you cut off a head-"

ZING~

A circle of metal whizzed through the neck of one of the King Hydra's many heads, severing it completely. Nao's shield returned to his hand, and he smirked. "You were saying?"

The head thudded to the ground, writhing around for a few seconds before dissolving. The neck on the other hand split in half lengthwise, each half thickening until it was the width of the original. As the eight warriors watched in horror, each neck swelled at the end, until a new head had formed on each, exactly the same as the first head.

"As I was saying, every time you cut off a head, two more grow in its place." Astarte finished.

"Good going, idiot." Sakura growled as her brother hung his head.

"So what do we do now?" Rhea asked no one in particular. The King Hydra looked even more menacing, if possible.

"We run." Brandaris replied with a grim expression.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Of Kings and Widows**

* * *

The eight teenagers raced toward the cliff they had been launched from. At the last moment however, Sakura, who had been in the lead stopped short. Between the cliff and their current location yawned a huge chasm. Several thin towers stretched upward from the depths of the void, which was shrouded in mist, and a stone bridge connected these to the sides of the canyon.

"This way!" Brandaris shouted, pointing to where one of the bridges reached over to their side. The others followed quickly after him, the King Hydra hot on their heels.

At the last second however, Drago skidded to a halt, his face turning pale. Directly in their path stood several black spiders, ranging in size from a large dog to a small pony, with bony white plates covering each one's back and head, as well as the tips of their legs. Looking around, he could see that the gap was covered in swaths of thick webs.

"Come on!" Nao pulled at Drago's arm but the dark-haired boy refused to move.

"Hell no!" Drago turned on his heel and began charging back to the King Hydra, which was still coming toward him. "I am not going anywhere near those damn spiders!"

"What an idiot." Astarte groused before sprinting after her partner.

"I suppose we should probably help them out?" Sakura looked askance at her twin.

"Someone has to." Nao glanced over to where Brandaris, Rhea, Kaine, and Deynares were fighting off the spiders. Most were crumbling into ash already, but a particularly large one was holding them off well.

"Let's go." Sakura drew her katana at the same time Nao brought his shield around to rest on his left arm. The twins charged after Drago and Astarte, who were dodging out of the way of the King Hydra's snapping heads.

"Did you two dunderheads even have a plan before coming back to fight this thing?" Sakura demanded.

"Nope." Drago hefted his sword and sliced at the King Hydra's leg. As sharp as Bleeding Wounds was, it wasn't enough to cut through the thick hide of the Grimm.

"If we just had fire-" Astarte rolled out of the way of the creature's jaws. "We would be able to cauterize the necks before new heads grew."

"Fire?!" Drago shouted. "Why didn't you just say so?" His brown eyes flashed red, and the air around him burst into flames.

"Alright then, we've got your fire." Sakura pointed with her sword. "We'll take each head one at a time, left to right."

"Got it." Nao grunted as one of the King Hydra's heads slammed into his shield. He leapt back and bashed the head. "Get ready, Drago!" Nao pulled the shield free of his arm and hurled it through the air, straight through the neck of the leftmost head.

As the head fell to the ground, Drago stretched his arm toward the Grimm, and a plume of fire washed over the stump. A loud hissing noise issued from the burnt flesh, but no new head erupted from the neck.

"It worked!" Nao yelled. He caught his shield, but instead of putting it back on his arm, he pressed a button on the inside. The shield split in half, and a long handle extended from what had been the straps until Nao was holding a large battle-axe.

"Great, now we just have to do this nine more times." Sakura grumbled.

* * *

The other four had managed to kill most of the spiders, but a particularly large one the size of a horse remained, blocking the path to the bridge.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Rhea asked Kaine, who nodded and clipped his pistols to his belt.

"What're you doing?" Deynares shouted.

"Unstoppable Force." Kaine said simply as he picked up Rhea and held her before him like a shield.

"What?" Brandaris started to ask before the other boy set off at a sprint. As Kaine gained speed, the air around him and Rhea began to glow silver. The two sped toward the last spider faster and faster until-

CRACK!

There was a flash of blue, and the spider seemed to explode. Kaine and Rhea skidded to a halt, completely unharmed, and turned to face Brandaris and Deynares, who were staring at them with gobsmacked expressions.

"What was that?!" Deynares hollered.

"Unstoppable Force." Kaine replied. "It combines my Semblance, Inertia, with hers, Reflection."

"My Semblance reflects all damage inflicted upon me to my attacker, and his makes him immovable if he's standing still or unstoppable once he starts moving." Rhea explained.

"This is a thing?" Brandaris shook his head. "Well, might as well help the others with the King Hydra."

"Uh, guys?" Deynares pointed at something behind them. "We got bigger problems."

Somehow, a titanic spider had managed to climb up the bridge silently. It was easily the size of the steamboat that Rhea and Kaine had arrived on the previous day. Strange to think that had been just twenty-four hours ago.

"A Grimm Widow." Rhea shuddered.

"Here we go again." Kaine sighed.

"Its underside doesn't look armored." Brandaris pointed. "Think that's a weak point?"

"Only one way to find out." Deynares replied. She took her shield, which was diamond shaped, unlike Nao's, and pulled on the bottom, detaching it from the rest of the shield. A long spike popped out from the piece, until it was as long as Deynares was tall. The remainder of her shield split in half from top to bottom to reveal the barrel of a rotating machine gun.

Deynares ran around the Widow in a long arc, firing rapidly at the creature's unarmored parts. However, the tough hide proved resistant to her bullets. Deynares swept her gun to the ground and pulled the trigger, propelling herself up and forward toward the spider Grimm. Landing on the bone plating on its back, the pink haired girl pulled her lance back before plunging it into one of the spider's eyes. Enraged and in pain, the Grimm Widow reared back.

"Now!" Brandaris yelled. He and Kaine ran toward the giant spider. Explosions erupted from the heels of Brandaris's boots, lending him greater speed. Just as he was about to run into the Grimm however, he twisted around and brought his right knee to his side before extending it in a side kick. Fire exploded out as his foot made contact with the base of one of the Widow's legs, blasting the thick black limb off.

Kaine rotated the pistols clipped at his side so that the barrels faced backward, and pulled the triggers. There were twin flashes of dark purple energy, and he shot forward, as if stung. Quickly, Kaine pulled his weapons from his belt and thumbed a switch on each. A razor-sharp blade popped out from the top of each pistol, and as Kaine passed under the Grimm Widow's body, he slashed at its legs, cutting off two more.

The spider did not take too kindly to this, and lurched forward, throwing Deynares off. The pink-haired girl landed hard on her back, driving the wind from her lungs. As she struggled to rise to her feet, the Widow brought two of its remaining legs toward her head.

At the last second, Rhea jumped in the path of the limbs, and there was another flash of blue light. When the light faded, the Grimm Widow was staggering back again, the legs it had tried to stab Deynares with crumbling into ash.

With just three legs remaining, the Grimm Widow was finished. It tried to skitter away, but suddenly Brandaris opened his mouth and began to sing an unearthly tune. The spider slowed down, its movements becoming more and more sluggish until it was completely still.

Loud screeches filled the air as three dragons of golden light burst forth from Deynares. Each one took hold of the Grimm Widow's remaining legs and flew upward, until the spider dangled in the air above the bridge helplessly.

"Do your thing!" Brandaris stopped singing to shout.

"Ready?" Kaine asked Rhea as he picked up the tiny girl.

"Let's finish this."

Kaine sprinted toward the spider, glowing pure silver. When he was almost there, he leapt as high as he could, then threw Rhea at the Grimm Widow. The small girl braced for impact.

CRACK!

Black ash rained down as the Grimm Widow dissolved. The four teenagers cheered, the adrenaline still pounding through their veins.

"Hey, can we cross the bridge now?" Sakura, Astarte, Nao, and Drago called. The King Hydra was crumbling to pieces just behind them, and the four of them smelled oddly like smoke.

* * *

"Dominic Ivory. Khai Obsidian. George Albus. Luna Nyx." Ozpin announced the names of four students as images of their faces flashed on a screen above his head. "The four of you retrieved the statue of the Beringel. From this day forth, you will be known as Team GOLD."

The students of Beacon cheered and applauded as Team GOLD waved. However, Drago couldn't help but notice that the number of people seemed to have shrunk since that morning. He shrugged and looked for a familiar head of reddish gold hair, but was interrupted by Ozpin.

"Drago von Flammen. Sakura Murasaki. Astarte Callampe. Nao Murasaki. The four of you retrieved the statue of the Phantom. From this day forth, you will be known as Team SAND, led by Sakura Murasaki." Ozpin beckoned to the four teenagers to the stage.

"Not bad, eh?" Nao elbowed Drago. "Looks like we passed."

"Yep." Drago smiled.

"Hey, uh, I've got a question." Nao scratched his head sheepishly. "Are you a guy, or a girl? Cause with that hair..."

Drago shot his new teammate a deadpan look. "I'm a guy, you idiot!"

"Hey, you guys, get off the stage." Sakura grabbed both boys by the ear and marched them off the stage.

"Rhea Cerulian. Kaine Oune. Deynares Cuin. Brandaris Tyrian. The four of you retrieved the statue of the Ursa. From this day forth, you will be known as Team BRCK, led by Brandaris Tyrian."

"Why is he the leader?" Deynares grumbled cheerfully.

"He did lead us during that battle with the Grimm Widow." Kaine pointed out.

"Well, I'm still not listening to him." Deynares decided.

After many more teams had been announced, Ozpin's expression turned somber. "Congratulations to all of you for surviving Initiation. However, this is only the first test of many to come, and the life you will lead once you leave this school is sure to be even more dangerous. Sadly, not everyone has the opportunity to live such a life. Several students lost their lives in the Emerald Forest today. Let us have a moment of silence for those who were lost today. Ace Veter. Johnny Linnaeus. Victoria Taling..." The list went on for far too long, but the final name drove the breath from Drago's lungs. "And Marietta Apollo."

"Remember these names, for they could have been yours. They were no less brave or capable than any of you, but through circumstance they paid the price for fighting back against the cruel world we live in. Remember the fallen, for even the strongest among you are not safe from the forces of darkness that threatens us all."

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Tardy**

* * *

Brandaris woke up to the sounds of his roommates chattering. For a brief few seconds, he considered putting his pillow over his head and going back to sleep. Sadly, the chattering did not cease, and Brandaris forced himself to sit up and allow his eyes to focus. A moment later, he rather wished he hadn't.

Somehow, while he was asleep, Brandaris's new teammates had endeavored to move all the furniture in their now spacious looking dorm room. They had mostly succeeded, by the looks of it. The four desks that had been provided were now arranged in a square in the center of the room, while bookshelves lined the space under the window. However, on the far side of the room, Brandaris could see Kaine and Deynares struggling to stack a bed on top of another one while Rhea shouted directions at them.

Frowning, Brandaris started to climb out of his bed and promptly fell six feet to the floor. The leader of Team BRCK realized too late that the team must have put him on the top of what was now a bunk bed.

"Morning!" Rhea chirped cheerfully. Kaine and Deynares, perhaps not fully awake, issued less enthusiastic greetings.

"Ow." Brandaris inspected his nose to make sure it had not been broken in his fall. "What's going on?"

"Redecorating." Kaine grunted as he set the large bed into a stable position.

"So I see." Brandaris looked around. He had to admit, the room did look nicer with the extra space. "What time is it?"

"Uh... a little past nine."

"Oh." Brandaris cast about for his school uniform. For some reason, it was in a crumpled heap by the corner. "I thought I set an alarm for eight."

"Is that what that was?" Deynares held up a mangled piece of metal that vaguely resembled a clock. "It woke me up, so I broke it."

"... Ah." Brandaris stared at the remnants of his alarm clock. "Right, I was going to wake up early to get breakfast before class, but I guess that's not happening."

"We could probably get a quick breakfast on the way to class." Rhea reasoned.

"That would be a good idea." Brandaris nodded. "If class hadn't started about five minutes ago."

Kaine summed up the collective feelings of the entire team with a single word. "... Shit."

* * *

Out of all his teammates, Nao seemed to be the only one wondering where Team BRCK were. Drago might have shared some of his concern, but he was out cold, facedown on the desk in front of him.

"What a lot of idiots." Sakura muttered. "I don't know why you're worried Nao, they probably got eaten by a Grimm or something."

"Maybe they just overslept." Nao guessed.

"Still stupid." Astarte toyed with Drago's long hair, snipping off small chunks here and there with a small pocket knife.

"Astarte, what are you doing?" Nao stared in horror and a small amount of amusement.

"Cutting off bits of Drago's hair, what does it look like?" Astarte waved her knife under Nao's nose.

"But why?"

"I want to try making a voodoo doll." Astarte put away her knife and gathered all the hair she'd collected into a small leather pouch.

Nao started to say something, then decided against it. Turning his attention back to the class, he listened to the teacher, a tall man with bright orange hair named Kyeran Vermillion, lecture about the different types of Grimm.

"Notice that the Porcuspike has a lot of spines coming out of its back." Kyeran pointed to an approximation of the Grimm he'd drawn on the blackboard. "However, its underside is relatively unprotected by bone plating. Keeping this in mind, what is the obvious strategy when trying to fight one?"

"Flip it over." Nao said after no one else answered.

"Thank you, Mr. Murasaki." Kyeran crossed to the edge of the classroom, where a large cage was sitting. He kicked it lightly, causing whatever was in the cage to rattle and make angry noises. "Any volunteers to demonstrate?"

At this moment, the four members of Team BRCK burst through the doors, out of breath and fifteen minutes late. Kyeran pointed to Deynares.

"Thank you for volunteering, Ms. Cuin."

"Huh?" Deynares looked around. "Volunteer for what?"

"You, are going to fight a Porcuspike. I hope you were paying attention when we were discussing strategy." Kyeran kicked the cage again, causing the Grimm inside to shriek with rage.

"Sweet." Deynares shrugged her diamond shaped shield, Ascalon, onto her left arm and came to the front of the classroom, where Kyeran was waiting. The teacher unlatched the cage and quickly stepped out of the way as the Grimm within burst through the door.

The Porcuspike was roughly five feet from snout to tail, and covered in bony white spikes. Like all Grimm, the head was largely covered with a white and red bone and the eyes glowed a sinister yellow. As soon as the creature saw Deynares, the spikes fanned out and it shrieked angrily.

"Aw, you're a cute one." Deynares grinned. She broke into a sprint and headed directly for the Grimm. The Porcuspike flicked its tail, sending a hail of spines at Deynares, but the pink-haired girl caught them all on her shield without missing a beat. Reaching the creature, she planted her foot squarely in the center of its snout. When the Grimm reared up as expected, she used the action as a springboard and leapt high into the air, shifting Ascalon into its lance and machine gun mode.

Much to Deynares's annoyance, the Grimm was unhurt by the barrage of bullets she emptied into its spine. The Porcuspike screeched loudly and whirled around to face the student. Deynares rolled to the side as the Grimm shot more spikes. However, the trajectory of the projectiles sent them straight toward the other students.

Nao pulled Drago out of the way as a large bone spine embedded itself in the desk where the sleeping boy's head had been. Kyeran sighed. "Mr. Murasaki, would you care to give Ms. Cuin a hand?"

"Flip the Porcuspike over! Its stomach is vulnerable!" Nao shouted. He picked up his own shield and ran over to the other side of the Grimm. "Can you distract the Grimm?"

"You bet your ass I can." Deynares muttered under her breath. She slammed the point of her lance into the classroom floor, and two small dragons of golden light burst out from the point of impact. The little reptiles flew around the Porcuspike's snout, biting at its eyes. The Grimm howled angrily, and swiped at the dragons, which dodged out of the way nimbly.

Nao's shield whirred as it split down the middle and converted into a large battle-ax. The white-haired boy darted around to the Grimm's side and swung his weapon in a low arc. The broad edge of the axe smashed into the Porcuspike, sending it flying into the wall. "Out of the way!" Nao shouted, motioning for Deynares to get clear.

A blizzard of icy spears burst from Nao's hands, smashing into the dark creature. When the hailstorm stopped, nothing remained of the creature but a dissipating black stain.

"Nice." Deynares punched Nao's shoulder, nearly knocking the boy over.

"And that concludes the class for today." Kyeran checked his watch. "Team BRCK, and Drago, I expect a five page essay detailing the anatomy of a creature of Grimm, with special emphasis on its weakness. Due tomorrow."

"What?!" Drago sat up quickly. "Astarte, what the hell are you- MY HAIR!"

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Claws**

* * *

"You what?!" Drago shouted.

"I made a voodoo doll." Astarte wondered if her partner had hearing problems. She was fairly certain she had said it clearly the first time around.

"With my hair?!" Drago's face was growing redder and redder by the second.

"It'll grow back, man." Kaine looked rather concerned. Astarte couldn't understand why.

"That's not the point!" Drago dropped his head onto the table with a dull THUD. "D'you have any idea how long I've been growing out my hair?"

"Too long, by the looks of it." Sakura remarked as she set down a tray of food. She slapped away Astarte's hand as she reached toward Sakura's plate. "Get your own potato, Astarte."

"See, I did you a favor then." Astarte said to Drago while glaring at Sakura.

Astarte could've sworn she saw smoke rising from her partner's head then. Considering his fiery Semblance, she supposed it wouldn't be too outlandish to assume that it was normal. Drago sputtered something about his weapon before he was put in a headlock by Nao and Kaine. Astarte wondered what the boys were doing, but dismissed it quickly. Boys would be boys.

The three boys toppled over backward and onto the floor. Seeing that Sakura was distracted, Astarte quickly snatched the baked potato from her team leader's plate.

* * *

"Is there a problem here?"

Kaine looked up to see Ozpin standing over him, Drago, and Nao. Nao glanced at the headmaster and hissed at Drago to stop trying to kill Astarte. The black-and-red haired boy finally calmed down and sat up straight.

Kaine stifled a snicker and turned back to the headmaster. "No sir, everything's all good."

Ozpin merely raised a single eyebrow and sipped from his mug. "Be sure it stays that way." He finally said before walking away.

Kaine breathed a sigh of relief. Then he noticed Drago glaring daggers at Astarte and smacked his arm. "Drach, chill."

"I am going to kill you." Drago announced, his eyes not leaving Astarte. His partner appeared not to have noticed, and took a bite out of Sakura's potato, having taken it when the leader of Team SAND wasn't looking.

"We're killing stuff? That sounds like fun!" Deynares interrupted before Kaine could say anything.

"No, Deynares, we're not gonna kill Astarte." Nao sighed. "Drach's just overreacting."

"OVERREACTING?!" Drago roared. "I'VE BEEN GROWING OUT MY HA-"

THWACK!

"Enough." Sakura's tone brooked no argument, and Kaine swore he saw a vein throbbing at her temple. "I've had enough of this idiocy. Drago, stop being a little bitch. Astarte, don't be such a damn weirdo. And give me back my potato."

Much to everyone's astonishment, Astarte complied, placing the remaining half of Sakura's potato back on her plate.

* * *

Kaine slammed his forehead against his desk. At four and a half pages, he was so close to finishing the essay Kyeran had assigned he could taste it. Glancing at Brandaris's new clock, the spiky-haired boy grumbled as he realized it was close to two in the morning. "Screw this."

Silently, as not to wake his sleeping roommates, Kaine threw on his jacket and crept silently out of their room. Rhea and Brandaris had finished their essays earlier that evening, and Deynares had written half of it before deciding to do the rest the next morning. Kaine had fallen asleep in the middle of his other homework, and had to rewrite about two pages of his essay after waking up to find it covered in drool.

Kaine made his way to the main plaza, where just two days ago, he and so many others had been gathered. So much had happened in that short time that it scarcely seemed real. The cool night wind soothed Kaine's frazzled nerves, and he breathed in deeply. The air smelled crisp, with tints of wood smoke and other scents from the city of Vale mixed in with the taste of vegetation from the Emerald Forest. Something didn't sit right with Kaine however, and he wrinkled his nose at an acrid, bitter smell. The smell of Grimm.

The moon that hung in the sky was in its most fragmented state, and only dimly illuminated the world of Remnant. However, Kaine could see the courtyard as clearly as if it were day. Narrowing his eyes, he saw a dark shape, blacker than the night, standing still at the edge of the plaza. Picking up a nearby stone, Kaine tossed it gently to the right of the Grimm.

An ordinary animal would have fled at the sound, or perhaps turned to see what it was. Creatures of Grimm however, always attacked. The dark beast leapt toward the stone, and into the moonlight, as Kaine had hoped. As good as his vision was, he wasn't able to identify what kind of creature it was. He was relieved to see that it was just a Nevermore, and a moderately sized one at that. If it had been a giant variant, he might've been in serious danger.

Kaine's hands automatically went to his belt, but he froze as he realized his weapons weren't hooked to his sides. Cursing silently, he considered returning to the room to retrieve Ultor Maul, but to his horror, the wind changed direction. Now, instead of going from the Grimm to Kaine, it flowed the opposite way.

The Nevermore's head swiveled to where the spiky-haired boy was standing, and it let out a piercing screech. Kaine grimaced. Its calls would likely attract any other Grimm in the area, so he had to act quickly. He might not have his weapons, but he still had his Semblance, as well as other defenses.

Letting his aura flare, Kaine sprinted toward the Nevermore. The avian Grimm began charging as well, and the two clashed in the center of the plaza. The Nevermore's momentum was cut short as Kaine plowed right through it, scattering its pieces all over the courtyard.

Kaine watched the remains of the Nevermore dissipate, but kept his Semblance activated. He was shining like a beacon, but all the Grimm in the vicinity were no doubt already on their way. As he expected, another Nevermore charged out of the shadows toward him. Kaine however, did not move.

The Nevermore smashed into Kaine, but bounced off as if it had collided with a brick wall. The Grimm landed on its back, and Kaine swiftly planted his boot on its wing, pinning it to the ground. Grabbing the bone crest on the back of the creature's skull, he slashed at it with his bare hand. Long, sharp claws cleaved through flesh, and the Nevermore's head came loose with a sickly wet sound.

Kaine dropped the dissolving head and looked around the courtyard. He couldn't see any other Grimm, but he felt uneasy nonetheless. A sixth sense warned him to look up, and he saw a third Nevermore diving toward him, talons outstretched. Kaine gathered his aura to charge up his Semblance, but suddenly his hair stood on end and the world flashed blindingly white.

BOOM

Kaine threw up his hands in shock as ash rained down upon him. His ears were ringing, and he couldn't see. Letting his Semblance ignite, the boy took up a defensive stance.

"Relax, it's just me." Astarte's flat voice came from right behind Kaine, startling him. "You shouldn't have been without your weapon."

"Yeah." Kaine groaned as he let his aura settle. He rubbed his eyes, his vision slowly returning. "I just went out for a walk, and the Grimm came out of nowhere."

Astarte's next words froze Kaine's blood. "Having claws is no excuse for carelessness."

Kaine forced a laugh. "Claws? What're you talking about?"

"I saw you tear the bird's head off with your bare hands." Astarte stared blankly at Kaine.

"Th-that was my aura." Kaine stammered. "You probably couldn't see, cause of the dark and all."

"So what kind of Faunus are you?"

Kaine sighed. "I don't know. Some kind of large cat, whatever animal has claws." He paused. "You don't care that I'm a Faunus?"

"Should I?" Astarte raised an eyebrow, which was the most expression Kaine had ever seen from her.

"Some people do." Kaine replied.

"I don't." Astarte said after a moment. "I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about."

Kaine blinked with surprise. "Oh...uh, thanks."

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Cracking Open a Cold One with the Girls**

* * *

"C'mon loser." Deynares tossed Rhea's jacket into her lap. "We're going to party."

"What?" Rhea jerked awake. She'd dozed off in the middle of doing homework, and realized she still had a paper to write for Dan Braun's class on Remnant history. "Oh shit, I've got to finish this. Pardon my language."

"That's due in a week, and you can always copy mine." Deynares pulled Rhea to her feet. "I copied mine from Nao, and he always gets good grades."

"I'm pretty sure that's cheating." Brandaris remarked as he walked into their dorm room with a basket full of laundry.

"Well, I didn't copy it exactly." Deynares huffed. "What kind of fool do you take me for?"

Whilst the two of her teammates argued, Rhea sank back into her seat and began writing the introduction to her history paper. She had gotten three sentences in when Kaine poked her cheek.

"We're about to leave." He announced to the rest of team BRCK. "The others are ready."

"Brandaris, you coming?" Deynares turned to the taller boy, who shook his head.

"No, I've got to finish this laundry. Besides, I'm not really welcome at most clubs in the city, on account of having arrested most of their patrons at one point or another."

"Wow, you are such a buzzkill." Deynares laughed. "Rhea you nerd, stop doing homework and get up!"

* * *

"Where'd Astarte go?" Nao asked no one in particular.

Sakura shrugged. "Who knows? I'm sure she'll be fine." She turned to Deynares. "Where did you say we were going?"

"There's a nightclub in downtown Vale." Deynares pointed to the city. The sun had just set, and lights were glimmering brightly in the dusk. Defended by high mountains and the ocean, the city of Vale had been untouched by the years of war. For those who had come from faraway lands, the busy nightlife of urban Vale was a stark contrast to battered Mantle and Mistral.

"This had better be worth it." Sakura sighed. Truthfully, she didn't mind too much, and was even excited to relax for a bit. The first week of classes had just come to an end, and she was grateful for the distraction. Training to fight Grimm involved a lot more essays than she'd anticipated.

"You need to loosen up a bit, Sakura." Drago laughed. "This'll be fun." The boy's voice trailed off as he quailed under his team leader's baleful eye.

"See now, this is what we're talking about, sis." Nao shook his head. "Just... try not to bite anyone's head off tonight."

* * *

"There's no way he's sober, the way he's dancing." Deynares laughed. Nao and Drago had disappeared hours ago with attractive women, though the latter boy had looked reluctant for some reason, leaving just the girls sitting at the bar. Kaine was down at the dance floor, thoroughly enjoying himself by the looks of it. Privately though, Deynares suspected that everyone else on the floor was just as inebriated as her partner.

"Oh, you have no idea." Rhea groaned. "Every time he'd get drunk... well, let's just say there's a reason I rarely ever drink."

"Is it cause you're a lightweight?" Sakura hiccuped, rather hypocritically. She had only had about five or six shots with Deynares before stopping because, in her words, the floor was spinning.

"Look who's talking."

Deynares whipped her head around to see a familiar face sitting at the bar next to her. "Astarte! When did you get here?"

"I've been here all night." The dead-eyed girl tilted a shot glass of clear liquid into her mouth and shuddered. "Hey, Pops! I asked for coconut rum! This is vodka!"

Pops was the largest man Deynares had ever seen, at least two meters in height, and almost half as wide. His arms were as thick as the average man's thigh, and his hands were easily the size of trash can lids. The wraparound sunglasses he wore added to his overall menace. All in all, he cut a rather fearsome figure, at least until he cowered under Astarte's glare. "I'm so sorry, Miss Callampe! Here, two bottles of coconut rum, on the house! Please don't trash my bar again."

As Pops beat a hasty retreat, Astarte held up the two bottles and smirked. "Anyone wanna help me with these?"

* * *

"And that is why Kaine hates birds." Rhea smiled as the other three girls burst into laughter. Truthfully, her story wasn't even that funny, but her friends were too drunk to realize that.

"Where-where is Kaine?" Sakura gasped, tears leaking out of her eyes. "Oh, Oum, that was funny!"

"He's right over there-" Deynares wasn't as inebriated as her companions, and scanned the dance floor, which had considerably fewer people than before. "Oh wait, he's gone..."

"Eh, I think I saw him going to that pizza place across the street." Astarte mumbled.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Rhea waved a hand. "Even when he's completely wasted, my brother can find his way around just fine."

"Are you sure?" Sakura tried to stand up and nearly fell down. She leaned against the bar and shook her head. "Maybe we should go looking for him?"

"Since when do you care about Kaine?" Astarte looked at her drunk teammate. "It's not like you guys are close or anything."

"You know I care about you guys, right?" Sakura replied. "You're my friends."

"You've got a funny way of showing it." Deynares snorted and picked up a bottle of coconut rum. Much to her disappointment, it was empty.

To everyone's surprise, the normally frosty girl flushed. "Oh, I know I can seem a bit cold. But that's just my bitch face."

"That's not the only thing that's bitchy." Deynares mumbled under her breath.

"Uh, I'm gonna go back to Beacon now." Rhea cut in before Sakura could respond. "Sakura, wanna come with?"

"Sure." Sakura nodded.

* * *

"That was fun." Sakura yawned as the two girls walked down the street. "Even if the bartender was a Faunus."

"Wha-?" Rhea looked at Sakura in surprise. "How could you tell?"

"His teeth." Sakura imitated fangs with her fingers. The sight of the ice queen making such a goofy face made Rhea giggle. "The canines were elongated, like a carnivore's."

"I didn't even notice." Rhea shook her head. "You would've had to be looking for Faunus traits to notice something like that."

"I always do." Sakura replied, her face growing serious. "You can't trust Faunus."

"That doesn't-" Rhea started to say, but her friend interrupted her.

"They're not human like us, Rhea. The animal parts of them, it makes them wild." Sakura clenched her fists, and frost began to form on the knuckles. "They're savages, every last one of them."

"I don't think-" Rhea tried to get a word in, but Sakura cut her off again.

"My family are merchants, really successful ones too. But it wasn't always that way. When Nao and I were younger, it was just us and our parents traveling around Mistral selling goods. One night on the road, we were attacked by Faunus bandits. Mother tried to fight them, but she couldn't see as well in the dark as they could and they... they murdered her." Sakura drew in a shaky breath. "Father never quite recovered. He threw himself into his work, making enough money so we didn't have to travel anymore. But it came at a cost. He wasn't there when Nao and I needed him."

"I'm sorry about that." Rhea winced. "But that was just one gang of Faunus. Surely you can't judge an entire race by the actions of a few."

"It wasn't just them though." Sakura said quietly. "Father married a Faunus woman about a year ago. Nao and I were against it, but she's bewitched him. That bitch hates me and my brother, and only wants Father for his money. She sent me and Nao to Beacon in the hopes that we'd be killed, either on the way to the school or during training. That way she and any of her spawn would inherit everything."

The two girls were silent all the way back to the school dormitories. After the heavy truths that Sakura had shared, neither one really felt like talking. When the pair finally arrived at their rooms, Sakura simply nodded a good night to Rhea and slipped into her team's room.

Rhea opened the door into BRCK's room. Brandaris was snoring quietly in his bunk, and Kaine was passed out on the floor next to his bed. Rhea quickly changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth, and climbed into her bed after kicking her adopted brother in a futile attempt to wake him up. Try as she might though, she couldn't shake Sakura's words.

It was true that Faunus were widely regarded as lower-class citizens by most of the world, particularly in Mistral, where criminal activity was rampant in the wilds between villages. Cases like the Murasakis were not unique. However, Rhea knew that Faunus, much like humans, were capable of both good and bad. Her thoughts strayed to Kristyna, the Faunus warrior who had rescued her from the Grimm attack that had destroyed her village and raised her alongside her adopted brother.

Speaking of which... Rhea looked over to where her teammate lay drooling on the floor. Sakura had called them her friends, but what would happen if she or Nao were to find out that Kaine was a Faunus?

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Mantle Shadow**

* * *

"You don't know anything about tea!"

If this went on any more, Deynares decided, she might have an aneurysm. It was bad enough that team BRCK was inside on a beautifully warm day doing homework, but the room was boiling hot because Rhea had decided to make some tea for the rest of them. Which would have been nice if it weren't for the fact that the tiny girl was arguing with their esteemed leader over the proper method to heat water before adding tea leaves to it.

"Why is this happening?" Deynares moaned, and slumped forward, letting her forehead hit the top of the desk with a dull THUNK. "Are they for real arguing about tea?"

"Rhea is absolutely serious." Kaine replied, doodling on his paper. "I don't know if Brandaris actually knows how to brew tea, but he's clearly having a laugh at Rhea's expense."

"I can see that, stupid." Deynares griped. "But why oh why does his fun have to make me miserable?"

"Don't tell him that, it'll only encourage him." Kaine didn't even look up.

"-I'm just saying, heating the water until it boils takes longer and uses more-"

"WILL BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP AND BE NORMAL PEOPLE?!" Deynares finally cracked. "YOU ARE ARGUING ABOUT TEA. WHO EVEN DOES THAT?" Instantly, she regretted her outburst. Rather than having the desired effect of making her teammates stop arguing, it only dragged her into their inanity.

"Deynares, the art of teamaking is-" Rhea began but Brandaris cut her off.

"Deynares, doesn't it make sense to stop heating the water before you boil it?" the leader of team BRCK grinned. "After all-"

The pink haired girl didn't bother to listen to the rest of what Brandaris had to say, shrieking inarticulately with rage and storming out of the room.

* * *

Drago was enjoying the warm weather very much, lying underneath a tree on the grassy lawn of Beacon Academy. He was also trying to stay as far away from Nao as possible. It wasn't that he minded the other boy's company. Quite the contrary. Nao was a great deal of fun to be around. It was just that Drago needed to some time by himself to think.

After all, the last time the two of them had hung out together, Drago had woken up in bed the next morning with some girl he barely recognized from some of his classes. She had been a very pretty girl, but that was beside the point. Add the fact that the last thing Drago remembered was drinking some funny tasting cocktail at the bar, and he had a fairly good idea of what might have happened.

Drago decided then that he didn't particularly want to think about that night anymore, and focused on the warmth of the sunlight on his skin. Back in Mantle- well, Atlas now- sunlight had been comparatively rare, only a few months during the height of summer reaching anything close to the temperate climes of Vale.

Eventually, the heat of the afternoon sun must have caused Drago to doze off, because the next thing he knew, someone was poking his cheek insistently. "Go away, Astarte." Drago mumbled and waved half-heartedly at his partner's hand.

Much to his surprise, Astarte then smacked Drago's head. The boy yelped and finally opened his eyes, only to find that it wasn't Astarte after all, but Deynares. "What was that for?"

"For calling me Astarte." Deynares frowned. "We don't even look alike."

Drach opened his mouth to argue that his eyes had been closed, that Astarte poked him to get his attention fairly often, that he didn't much care who was touching his face but he would rather that they didn't, something that made sense. The stormy look on Deynares's face however, persuaded him otherwise, and he closed his mouth.

"C'mon, walk with me." Deynares pulled Drago to his feet and started walking along the path toward Vale. The long-haired boy paused for a second, then jogged to catch up.

"So, did you finish that essay?" Drago said after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"I copied it from Nao." Deynares said. "Not word for word, but-"

"Gotcha." Drago said quickly. He didn't want to hear about Nao, or anything else that reminded him of last night.

Deynares however, was more perceptive than that. "Is everything alright between you and Nao?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's just great." Drago mumbled. Then he yelped as Deynares pulled on his ponytail. "Oi! Watch the hair!"

"What happened?" Deynares demanded.

"Why do you care so much?" Drago rubbed his scalp.

"I just feel like solving someone else's problems today."

"And you don't have any problems of your own?"

"Nope. I'm perfect."

"Liar." Drago smiled. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"Deal."

"Two weeks ago, the morning after we went to the club, I woke up in bed with a really hot girl."

"Nice." Deynares rolled her eyes.

"It would be, if I could remember any of what happened the night before. Last thing I remember was drinking a funny tasting cocktail at the bar."

"You were drugged?" Deynares raised an eyebrow. "You should tell someone-"

"It's fine." Drago waved his hand. "I'm just pissed cause I don't remember what was probably some awesome sex, judging by how much my hips were hurting."

"Did not need to know that." Deynares frowned. "But still-"

"I'm always down for doing the dance with no pants." Drago smirked. "But the real problem is that it wasn't my cocktail that I drank. It was Nao's."

"You mean..."

"Somebody tried to drug Nao." Drago finished.

"So what're you going to do?" Deynares asked. "You should tell the police at least."

"I don't know yet." Drago admitted. "I'm trying to think of a way to tell Nao, but it's not like I can just go up to him and be like, 'Yo, remember that night we got drunk and I had sex? Well, it was cause I got roofied by your spiked drink.'"

"Sure you can."

"Alright, but he won't care. Nao's probably slept with half the school already, and he likes to think the other half are all horny for him anyway. So he might not think it's a problem."

"He's your teammate." Deynares patted Drago's shoulder. "Trust me, he'll care if you got roofied. But only if you tell him."

"Alright." Drago shrugged. "But what about you? What's been eating you?"

* * *

"You, actually." Deynares looked around to make sure no one else was close enough to hear their conversation. "Your name's von Flammen. That's a Mantle name if I ever heard one."

Deynares saw real panic flare up in Drago's eyes, and smoke began to rise from his skin, a sure sign that he was close to bursting into flames. "And what of it?"

"Nothing." Deynares held up her hands in a gesture of peace. "I'm from Mantle too, you know."

"You are?" Drago blinked, his eyes turning brown again. Deynares had never really noticed, but the irises of his eyes turned red when he used his Semblance. "I had no idea."

"Yeah, I changed my name and dyed my hair before I came to Vale." Deynares fiddled with her pink locks. The color was fading a little, which meant she'd have to dye it again soon. "But you didn't."

"I didn't feel like I had to." Drago mumbled. "My family was neutral in the war, and my mother has ties to Vale."

"Officially, yeah." Deynares paused, wondering to herself if she was making a mistake in revealing what she knew. "However, I know for a fact that Lord von Flammen is a staunch Mantle nationalist, and that several of his nephews fought in the war."

"Fought and died." Drago amended, his face darkening at the mention of his cousins. "That's not a very well known fact, Deynares. If that's even your name. Mantle nobility politics aren't something the ordinary people of our homeland are concerned with."

"You'd be surprised." Deynares was tempted to tell off the young nobleman for being rather elitist, but then again, he hadn't spent several months living among the "common folk", as her older sister would call them. "And you're right. Deynares isn't my real name. It's Daenyrs."

Drago's eyes widened, and he sank to one knee, bowing his head. "Your Majesty."

"Get up!" Deynares hissed, looking around frantically. Fortunately, the few people nearby seemed not to have noticed Drago's display. "Are you an idiot? I changed my name and dyed my hair to hide my identity, and you go bowing to me in the middle of the street!"

"My sincerest apologies, your Highness." Drago bowed again, and Deynares smacked him in the head.

"What did I just say?!"

"Sorry, sorry." Drago shook his head. "It's just- You know, the entire country was in an uproar when you- er, the youngest princess of Mantle disappeared?"

"Yeah, I know." Deynares sighed, relieved that her friend had finally taken the hint. "I lived among the 'ordinary people' for a few months, learning how to fight and living on a farm."

"But why come to Vale?" Drago asked. "I heard that the government remade Alsius into a school like Beacon."

"I did think about it." Deynares replied. "But you and I both know that the students at Alsius are most likely people like you and me, from the upper classes of Mantle society. There would be more of a chance that someone would recognize me, and I'd be whisked away, back to the royal palace and a life of skirts and parties."

"But you do wear a skirt and go to parties." Drago pointed out, then sidestepped Deynares's kick. "I get what you're saying though. I went to Alsius for a couple of years before it closed, and it was full of the older generations' politics. I wasn't sure if it was... safe for me to be here, but at least Beacon's free of all that."

"Yeah, there's just a different set of problems." Deynares muttered under her breath, thinking about Sakura. The girl's frosty attitude was incredibly irritating, and she wondered how the bitch was related to the carefree and outgoing Nao. Deynares said none of this however, there was no reason to trouble Drago with more crap about his teammates.

"Drago?" Deynares put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Thanks for listening to me ramble. And about what I told you..."

"My lips are sealed." Drago nodded. "On my family's honor."

* * *

Omake

"Shouldn't you take the water off now?" Brandaris asked. He could hear the liquid bubbling slightly inside the kettle, and knew that it was almost boiling.

"No, it has to boil first." Rhea answered absentmindedly as she worked on the essay Brandaris had finished while the others had gone to the club.

"Does it?" Brandaris wondered aloud. "I always thought tea just had to be hot."

"No, you're supposed to boil the water first!" Rhea looked up from her work, genuinely annoyed. Brandaris was taken aback at first, but then he had an idea.

"That's ridiculous, and a waste of energy. You get the same result by taking the kettle off before the water begins boiling." Brandaris thought this argument made quite a lot of sense. The water was close enough to boiling anyway, and it would save power to turn off the heat earlier.

"You don't know anything about tea!" Rhea put her pencil down on the desk, glaring at Brandaris, who was trying very hard not to giggle. While her statement was technically true, Brandaris did know how to make a basic cup of tea, or at least he thought he did. No one at his old precinct had ever complained when he made tea for them.

"It's not just about tea, Rhea." Brandaris said. "It's physics." As he launched into an explanation of how heat energy worked, the purple haired boy noticed Deynares's face growing redder and redder, while Kaine was doing his best to hide his smirk. Clearly, Rhea wasn't the only one getting mad. "-I'm just saying, heating the water until it boils takes longer and uses more-"

"WILL BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP AND BE NORMAL PEOPLE?!" Deynares roared. "YOU ARE ARGUING ABOUT TEA. WHO EVEN DOES THAT?"

"Deynares, the art of teamaking is-" Rhea began but Brandaris cut her off.

"Deynares, doesn't it make sense to stop heating the water before you boil it?" the leader of team BRCK grinned. "After all-"

The pink haired girl didn't bother to listen to the rest of what Brandaris had to say, shrieking inarticulately with rage and storming out of the room.

"Well." Brandaris smiled victoriously. "I believe that makes me the victor."

"How? Deynares just screamed and walked out when you opened your mouth!" Rhea fumed.

"She didn't argue with me." Brandaris grinned.

"Here's your tea." Kaine set down two slightly steaming mugs of mint tea before Rhea could start screaming too. "While you guys were arguing, the water started evaporating, so I made it for you."

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Triple Claw Takedown**

* * *

"Whatcha doing?"

Brandaris looked up to see Kaine's upside down face, and closed the file he had been looking over, sitting upright. "Reading something my friend sent." While this was technically true, it wasn't entirely accurate. "Just some boring police stuff."

"Police stuff?" Kaine made a face. "You're a policeman?"

"Haven't I told you?" Brandaris asked. Actually, now that he thought of it, he couldn't recall ever discussing his previous line of work with Kaine, at least. "Before I came to Beacon, I worked as a police officer in Vale."

"Wait, you were serious when you said you arrested people?" Kaine laughed. "I thought you were just kidding!"

"Well, because of various Grimm attacks that accompanied bar fights, alcohol was completely illegal in Vale until near the end of the Great War and-" Brandaris was interrupted by Kaine's mock snoring.

"Whatever, it's not illegal anymore, is it?"

"Not if you're over sixteen." Brandaris sighed.

"Great, so I don't have anything to worry about." Kaine grinned. "Anyways, I'm gonna go fight some Grimm in the forest with Drach, wanna come with?"

"Sounds like a Grimm situation, if you ask me." Brandaris quipped. Kaine groaned in disgust and hurried out. The leader of BRCK smirked. It hadn't been one of his better puns, but those never failed to drive away Kaine when he was being annoying. He opened the file again, and reread the short note addressed to him.

Dear Brandaris,

I know you're technically retired, and are probably busy with school, and I'm technically not supposed to talk with civilians about open cases, but I would really appreciate your input on this one. You were the best detective in our precinct, and no one else has been able to crack this one yet. Help a fellow out, will ya?

Silver

Silvanus "Silver" Rose had been Brandaris's junior officer while he was on the force. Though he was himself a proficient detective, he still deferred to Brandaris's expertise, and asked for help from time to time. This case was no different, though somewhat frustrating. The Triple Claw Triad, an exclusively Faunus gang that controlled the slums of Vale, had recently been attacked, and several of their Dust smuggling operations had been thwarted.

Normally, this would have been chalked up as another skirmish between the Triple Claws and their rivals, the Firecrackers, but the Vale Police's undercover officers on both sides reported that neither gang had any idea what was going on. To make matters worse, two sting operations had been aborted because of the attacks on the Triple Claw Triad, and though the police were able to make arrests, without evidence, the Faunus gangsters were walking free.

Among the files that Silver had sent was a schedule for the Triple Claw's Dust shipments. The next one would be arriving a little after midnight at the city's ports.

Brandaris closed the file with an audible snap. A quick glance at the clock told him that he had about an hour to get to the docks. He considered leaving his weaponized boots Sinistra and Dexter behind so he could move faster and quieter, but ultimately decided against it. Though his little excursion was intended to be strictly reconnaissance, he didn't want to be caught without his weapons.

* * *

In retrospect, Brandaris thought, he should have brought homework, or something to do to pass the time. Almost an hour had passed since the Triple Claw had arrived with boxes of illegal Dust, and no one had been attacked yet. It was getting to the point that Brandaris was considering arresting the gangsters himself, though logically he knew Silver and the other officers were biding their time.

Brandaris yawned and rubbed his eyes. Privately, he felt the Triple Claw grunts deserved to get their asses kicked for smuggling so slowly. Honestly, it was no wonder they kept getting attacked. Just as he was considering going back to Beacon to get some sleep however, Brandaris's musings were interrupted by a loud screech of pain.

Brandaris rushed to the edge of the rooftop he had been watching the Triple Claws from. Two stories below him, he could see a figure wearing all black fighting the Faunus gangsters. A large battle-axe whirled expertly in the vigilante's hands, smashing aside the swords and knives the Triple Claws carried. The criminals' choice of weaponry was partly out of necessity of stealth and partly because Faunus weren't allowed to carry firearms, but Brandaris could see that it put them at a great disadvantage.

Oddly enough however, the vigilante seemed to be alone. Within a minute, seven Triple Claws lay unconscious or whimpering on the docks, leaving just the axe wielder standing. Now that the man, for Brandaris could tell even from a distance that the vigilante was male, was standing still, the shape of the axe seemed a little familiar. Before Brandaris could get a closer look however, the vigilante bolted into the night, his dark clothing blending in with the shadows.

Adrenaline coursing through him, Brandaris leapt from the rooftop, following the Triple Claw Triad's attacker. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop silently, but the man seemed to realize he was being pursued and quickened his pace. Throwing caution to the wind, Brandaris hurled himself into empty air, kicking with all his might.

Purple light flared from the soles of Sinistra and Dexter, propelling Brandaris forward. The vigilante looked up in alarm to see the purple-haired young man bearing down on him. Brandaris crashed into the pavement, sending concrete shards flying with the force of his landing. The vigilante was knocked down, and Brandaris lunged toward him, grabbing a fistful of the man's clothing.

The battle-axe twitched in the vigilante's hand, and Brandaris flinched, expecting it to cut at him. To his surprise though, the blade slashed through cloth instead, and the vigilante vanished, leaving Brandaris in a crater in the middle of an alleyway, holding a scrap of black fabric.

Frustrated, Brandaris threw the fabric on the ground. "Fuck!"

* * *

"Did you hear about the dance?" Rhea's voice cut into Brandaris's thoughts.

"What?" He looked up from his dinner, which lay untouched and cold on his tray.

"I said, did you hear about the dance?" Brandaris's partner asked again. "The school's going to be holding a formal dance in a couple of months."

"That's nice." Brandaris sighed, poking at his potatoes.

"Are you going to ask anyone?" Rhea asked, apparently oblivious to Brandaris's unenthusiasm.

"Probably not." Brandaris gave up trying to eat, and took a sip of his drink instead.

"Yeah, I asked Kaine and he said he wasn't going to either." Rhea took a bite of her pasta.

"What if someone asks him?" Brandaris mock glared at his teammate. "You know, it doesn't always have to be the guy who asks the girl you know."

"Actually, it's funny you mentioned that. Nao hinted that Sakura might ask Kaine." Rhea continued unfazed. "Funny thing is, he isn't going to ask anyone either. You'd think he would, but Nao hasn't exactly been himself lately."

"What do you mean?" Brandaris looked at her with a surprised expression.

"Well, he's been falling asleep in class lately, and he's always off studying late at night, according to his teammates."

"There's no point in studying that much if you're gonna snooze in class." Brandaris snorted.

"If he is studying." Rhea gestured with her fork. "He might be going off to hunt Grimm in the forest or party in the city."

Brandaris opened his mouth to question why Nao would do either of those things when all of a sudden, everything clicked into place. "Rhea, you're a genius!"

"I am?" The smallest member of Team BRCK looked surprised.

"No, I'm just excited." Brandaris rushed out of the dining hall and sprinted to the dormitories. Arriving at team SAND's room, he knocked on it loudly. Several seconds later, the door opened slightly, just enough to show a golden yellow eye that lacked any light, as though it were dead.

"Yes?" Astarte mumbled.

"Is Nao in there?" Brandaris leaned against the wall, slightly out of breath.

"No." Astarte made to shut the door, but Brandaris managed to wedge his foot in before she could close it.

"Ow! I'm not done yet! Where is he?"

Astarte's eye rolled, and she replied. "Probably picking a fight at another bar."

"What?"

"Yeah, he tried to fight Pops while I was there one night. I had to stop them."

"Gee, I didn't know you cared, Astarte." Brandaris smiled.

"I don't. I needed Pops to get me a drink and Nao was holding him up." Astarte's eye glared at Brandaris. "Now, move your foot, or I'll break it."

"Thanks Astarte!" Brandaris quickly removed the offending limb and went to his room to fetch Sinistra and Dexter.

* * *

Nao looked around the empty parking lot in confusion. The Faunus gangster he'd beaten the information out of had sworn that the Triple Claws would be there, but no one except him was there.

"Nao!"

At the sound of his name, the boy whirled around and threw his shield with all his might. To his surprise however, Frostbite went slightly to the left of where he had aimed. A moment later, Nao was glad he'd missed, as he realized who had called him. "Brandaris?"

"The Triple Claws aren't going to be here tonight." The taller boy picked up Frostbite from where it lay. "You know, your aim would be better if you got some sleep."

Nao flinched. "How did you-"

"I was a detective before coming to Beacon, Nao." Brandaris interrupted. "You weren't exactly subtle about your activities either, and I still hear things from the police."

"Oh." Nao blinked. "So... are you going to arrest me?"

"I probably should." Brandaris admitted. "You've caused the Vale Police Department a lot of trouble. See, you might think you're helping by beating up the gangsters, but it's messing with the justice system and they're just going free-"

"I wasn't." Nao growled. Under normal circumstances, he would have been surprised at his own tone, but he felt really tired all of a sudden and hungry as well.

"You can't fool me, Nao." Brandaris frowned. "Astarte told me you've been picking fights and-"

"That's not what I meant." Nao stalked forward and snatched his shield from Brandaris. "I'm not trying to help the police, I just- I just needed to blow off steam and the Triple Claws were the perfect targets."

"What?" Brandaris looked shocked. "But why?"

"Because they're Faunus." Nao sneered. "You were a cop, you know they're all criminals."

"That's-"

"They didn't have to kill her!" Nao shouted. Suddenly, he wasn't standing in a Vale parking lot anymore. He was nine years old again, and hiding inside a carriage as his mother's screams echoed outside. "They-they..."

"Snap out of it, man!"

Nao blinked, realizing that Brandaris was holding him by the shoulders and shaking him.

"Who killed who?!" Brandaris roared. "Nao, if someone was murdered, you have to tell me! The police-"

"No- Not recently, you idiot!" Nao snapped. "I- I.. It was years ago. In Mistral. My mom. No one... no one was killed here. Not that I know of."

Brandaris breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh. Okay. What's that sound?"

Nao realized with some embarrassment that it was his stomach loudly grumbling. "Uh, I kinda skipped dinner."

"Me too." Brandaris nodded. "Wanna get something to eat?"

* * *

"-I get that, but you can't just judge an entire race for the actions of a few individuals." Brandaris mumbled through a mouthful of burger. "The Firecrackers are just as big of a gang as the Triple Claw Triad, and they're entirely human. Gang wars between the two have been fought on the basis of race, not just over territory or money."

The two of them were sitting in Patty's Patties, a favorite establishment among the Vale police. The fast food restaurant was old, but relatively clean, and the food was good for the low price, if a little greasy. Brandaris had recommended the place, and Nao had been too hungry to care much.

"So what." Nao waved a french fry dismissively. "I've seen good humans and bad humans. I've yet to see a good Faunus."

"They're out there." Brandaris replied. "It's just... harder for them. The ones that are criminals like the Triple Claws, most have no other option. There are laws that keep them as lower class citizens, even in Vale. Like the Faunus Firearms Act. Any Faunus caught with a gun gets thrown in prison for life, while it's just a fine for humans who don't have a license."

"As it should be." Nao popped the fry into his mouth. "And if they don't like it, that's what Menagerie is for, isn't it? If they're all in a place where there aren't any humans, they won't be lower class."

Brandaris sighed. "Whatever. I know you have your reasons for hating Faunus. Lots of people think the same way you do, but that's part of the problem. You keep pushing the Faunus down, they'll push back, and eventually the dam's gonna burst."

"Let's agree to disagree." Nao shook his head. "But you're right, I'll stop attacking the Triple Claws. The police can handle it."

Brandaris shifted uncomfortably. "There's still the issue about Drago."

"Yeah, that." Nao looked down at the tabletop. "I don't know what I should do. I mean, it's my fault-"

"What?" Brandaris burst out laughing. "Your fault? You think that he got roofied because someone was trying to drug you instead?"

"Well, it was my drink that was spiked, wasn't it?" Nao grumbled. "Stop laughing, it's not funny."

"It really isn't." Brandaris agreed. "But that you think it's your fault because someone wanted to bang you and got Drago instead? That's gotta be the most arrogant and fucked up thing that I've ever heard."

"It- okay, that was pretty self-centered." Nao banged his head on the table. "Look, just help me catch whoever did it?"

"Of course." Brandaris nodded. "Someone other than you has to do the arresting."

"I thought Vale allowed citizen arrests?"

"You're a citizen of Mistral."

"Oh. Right... So, you asking anyone to that dance?"

* * *

Omake

Dark green eyes met flat gold ones. Deynares smirked while Astarte remained expressionless. Around the two girls, the other members of teams BRCK and SAND lay knocked out cold.

"Your turn." Deynares grinned at Astarte, who merely shrugged in response.

"If you insist." The dead-eyed girl quickly raised a small cup of clear liquid to her lips and swallowed the contents. She shook her head like a dog, but remained upright, turning the shot glass over and placing it in a line with its brothers.

Deynares eyed Astarte's line of shot glasses. In the dim light and haze of alcohol, she couldn't tell if there were nine or ten upside down. But what did it matter? She was going to win this anyways.

Deynares tossed back her pink hair and tipped her shot glass into her mouth. The rum burned pleasantly on its way down, and she turned the glass over, placing it down on the table. Unlike Astarte, she hadn't bothered with a line, but stacked them in a neat pyramid.

Astarte scowled, showing some form of emotion for the first time since their game had began. It may have been Deynares's imagination, but her opponent's hand seemed to tremble as it picked up the next glass. Astarte drank the rum as quickly as she had the first eleven or so times, and placed it upside down on the table. However, her hand didn't move from the glass.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, Astarte slumped forward until her forehead hit the tabletop with a crash. Loud snores began emanating from her head, and Deynares whooped victoriously. She quickly drank the last glass in front of her, and poked Rhea, who had not taken part in the drinking contest but had fallen asleep instead.

"Wha- Who won?" The smaller girl yawned.

"Who do you think?" Deynares pumped her fist. "Told ya I had the highest tolerance."

"So I see." Rhea eyed the tabletop. Small puddles of rum were scattered along with lines of shot glasses. A small pile of money lay in the center, having been contributed by the other contestants who were currently in various states of unconsciousness. By the looks of it, Astarte and Deynares had each drunk about twice as much as the others had.

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Trial by Combat: Part I**

* * *

The anticipation in the lecture hall was almost tangible. The students would be starting the long-awaited combat unit after months of practice drills and note-taking, and even emotionless Astarte of all people seemed to be excited. Instead of the usual classroom, the entirety of Beacon's first class was sitting in the bleachers of a large gym.

"About time, isn't it?" Nao punched Drach's arm. "I can't wait to kick ass."

"I dunno..." Drach surveyed the room. "You know BRCK's hard to beat, and the other teams are probably just as good."

"Ah, we're not gonna be paired with BRCK." Nao yawned and ruffled his hair. "Harriet's not dumb enough to put us with our friends."

"You don't know that for certain." Astarte interrupted in her usual flat tone. "For all you know, you may have to fight people you consider friends in the real world. Beacon's supposed to prepare us for any situation we may encounter after graduation, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that we'll be required to face those we consider to be our friends."

Nao gave his teammate a sour look. "Spoilsport."

"All of you shut up." Sakura hissed. "Harriet's giving instructions."

"Alright you lot!" Harriet Verde, the combat instructor of Beacon, pointed to a large screen at the opposite end of the gym. "Here's how we're gonna do this. Your teams will be split up into the partners you formed during the Initiation." At this, the assembled students began to grumble. "Now, don't worry, you won't have to fight your friends, you'll be fighting in pairs from different teams-"

"Told you." Nao smirked at Astarte, before yelping as both girls of team SAND smacked the back of his head. "Ow!"

"-And our first match will be..." Harriet turned to look at the screen, which was displaying a rotation of the different partner groups. "Sakura Murasaki and Nao Murasaki of Team SAND versus George Albus and Luna Nyx of Team GOLD!"

"Sweet." Nao grinned.

* * *

On a physical level, George Albus could not have been more different from Nao Murasaki, with short white hair, leaner physique, and an impeccable uniform, save for the belt with multiple bulging pouches. And yet, there was an obvious similarity between the two that was evident in the way he winked at Sakura.

"I think he likes you." Nao whispered as he elbowed his sister. He then whistled at their other opponent. "S'up, girl?"

"I'm going to break him." Sakura decided before elbowing her twin in retaliation. "Don't be a fool."

"What?" Nao shrugged. "I'm just trying to be nice. Luna's pretty friendly."

"That girl is too friendly." Sakura cast a dark look at Luna Nyx, who was waving happily to the Murasaki twins. Friendly was putting it a little lightly, in Sakura's opinion. She hadn't interacted much with the girl, but on the perhaps two occasions that they had, Luna's saccharine nature just rubbed her the wrong way. And there was the fact that she somehow managed to look scandalously underdressed in the same Beacon uniform that Sakura wore.

Nao groaned. "Sis, you can't go around calling every girl who has bigger boobs than you a ho-"

"That's not what I meant!" Sakura felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. "It's just that she's a little too sweet. It really creeps me out, you know? And don't talk about boobs in front of me!"

"Hehe, made you say boobs." Nao snickered.

Sakura's angry retort was lost in the loud noise of the gym's buzzer going off.

Almost instantly, George pulled a small metal sphere from one of the many pouches on his belt and tossed it into the air. Its flight down was intercepted by a forceful swing of his axe, which sent the grenade flying toward Sakura and Nao, who managed to duck aside in time. The grenade hit the floor and burst into a large cloud of smoke, obscuring the twins' vision.

Sakura felt a tingling sensation at the back of her neck, her aura warning her of an incoming attack. She swept her free hand up in an arc, forming a tough ice barrier just in time.

Luna burst out of the smoke, swinging a three-sectioned staff longer than her height over her head. Each end segment had a long blade attached to the end that cracked the ice that Sakura had created.

"Ooh, an ice shield! That's so cool!" Luna squealed as she twirled the three-sectioned staff over her head. "That's a really awesome Semblance!"

"Thanks?" Sakura mumbled. Though her brother might say otherwise, Sakura was not jealous of Luna's more curvaceous figure. The girl's happy-go-lucky nature simply baffled Sakura, and her disarming amity really confused Sakura, who honestly had no clue how to respond. Fighting was so much simpler.

Sakura jumped out from behind her ice barrier as the force of Luna's next blow shattered it. She leapt forward at her opponent, but the three-section staff moved faster than Sakura had expected, and she was forced to parry the flying blade as it whistled toward her head.

Meanwhile, Nao jogged forward, taking various Dust grenades on his shield as George launched them at him. "Those are really annoying."

"Hey, whatever works, right?" George grinned. "Wears down your aura and keeps you away."

"I'm not so sure about that last one." Nao batted aside a grenade that burst into flames as it hit the floor.

In retrospect, the smile that lit up George's face at Nao's statement should have been a clue. The leader of Team GOLD pulled out a grenade from a hitherto unused pouch. Instead of using his axe to launch it as he had with the others, he instead shook it twice and threw it at Nao.

Nao tried to hit the grenade away, but the second it hit his shield, there was a flash of dark purple, and suddenly Frostbite was too heavy to lift from the ground. "What the?"

"Gravity Dust!" George shouted. He pulled another sphere from his belt and smacked it with his axe at Nao.

Nao pulled futilely at his shield before diving out of the way of the incoming grenade. "Damn it." He swore under his breath as he dodged incoming Dust projectiles. Even if he could get close enough that George wouldn't be able to use his grenades, the other boy would still have a longer reach with that axe. Worse still, his Semblance, Blizzard, though devastating, was easy to dodge. Without Frostbite, Nao had very little chance of defeating George. "Sakura!" He shouted in desperation.

"I'm a little busy here!" Sakura shouted back from the other end of the gym. For her part, the leader of Team SAND was extremely frustrated. Luna's three-section staff was forcing her to keep her distance, rendering her katana Higetsu useless. All she could do was create ice barriers, but Luna kept breaking through them and had actually managed to maneuver Sakura into a corner. Worse, the girl insisted on apologizing whenever she managed to hit Sakura with that damned staff of hers.

Luna suddenly stopped twirling her staff and grabbed the two end segments, which Sakura noticed were oddly shaped now that they weren't swinging through the air. Too late, the leader of Team SAND realized what they were as Luna pointed them at her. "I'm sorry!" Luna squeaked as she fired the bayonets that formed the end segments of her staff at Sakura.

The blast knocked Sakura to the the ground and put a serious dent in her aura. She wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer. Frowning, Sakura thought back to the last time she'd taken this much damage. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Nao! Remember the Horseman?"

The Horseman had been a strange Grimm that Sakura and Nao had encountered while traveling to Beacon which appeared much like a horse with a horned "rider" that only became active when the equestrian part stood still. Unique creatures of Grimm were not unheard of, quite a few had cropped up during the Great War, but the monsters rarely ever came in humanoid form, unless you counted the Phantoms.

Sakura and Nao had cornered the Horseman and were close to striking the final blow when the "rider" had spun in a circle, whipping its arms around in a large radius and momentarily stunning the twins. By the time they had come to, the Grimm had disappeared.

"Yeah!" Nao cartwheeled out of the path of another grenade. "Oh! I gotcha!"

In a surprisingly graceful move, Nao twirled like a ballerina, activating his Semblance at the same time. A hailstorm of icicles blasted out in all directions, knocking both George and Luna off their feet. Sakura had shielded herself in an icy shell, knowing what was coming, and she burst out of it now. She swept Higetsu in a tight arc, conjuring an icy shell that trapped Luna completely, and continued past her.

George had barely managed to get to his feet when he saw Sakura bearing down on him with her katana. "Ack!" He threw up his arms to shield himself, although he figured he had enough aura to protect himself. Much to his surprise however, he didn't feel the impact of a blade on his aura or skin. Looking down though, he realized that he would have preferred it if Sakura had just sliced at his head.

The tip of Higetsu had slashed through several of the pouches on George's belt, damaging the spheres contained within. He looked up at Sakura with wide eyes as she winked at him. The leader of Team GOLD whimpered softly as multiple Dust grenades exploded, sending him flying into the far wall with an audible CRUNCH.

Sakura grinned and sheathed her katana as her fellow students cheered.

"Oh no, I've been trapped! Whatever will I do!" Suddenly Luna called out in an overly dramatic tone. "Or have I?"

There was a horrific noise, as though the very air was tearing itself to shreds, and Luna disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing a second later in front of Nao, who had finally managed to unstick his shield from the floor.

"I got this!" Nao pressed the button on the inside of his shield, and it extended into its battle-axe form. "Wanna dance?"

"Hmmm..." Luna tilted her head to the side, seeming to think about it. "Nah, I'd rather distract you." In a quick movement, she pulled up the hem of her already tight shirt to her neck. Much to half the watching students' disappointment, she was facing away from them, so only Nao got to see Luna's distraction.

Almost immediately, Nao's nose exploded in a spray of bloody mist, and he fainted dead away. There was an audible ripple of laughter from the audience.

Luna pulled her shirt back down enough to cover herself, and began twirling her weapon again, but that was as far as she got. There was a horrifying screech and Sakura seemed to appear behind Luna out of nowhere. Higetsu abandoned, Sakura grabbed a fistful of Luna's long black hair and pulled hard, somehow managing to suplex the girl.

The buzzer rang again, signaling the end of the match. Harriet scribbled something on a clipboard in her hand before announcing, "Team SAND wins by total knockout!" The green haired instructor seemed to be nursing a headache.

Sakura looked at Luna's prone form ruefully. "I really have to stop losing my temper..."

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Trial By Combat: Part II**

* * *

"Okay..." Harriet rubbed the bridge of her nose as Astarte and Sakura dragged Nao back into the bleachers. "That was an interesting match, to be sure. Next, we have Brandaris Tyrian and Rhea Cerulian of Team BRCK versus Vladimir Scarlett and Augusta Violette of Team VALR."

"You ready?" Brandaris grinned at Rhea, who shrugged.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Let's do this."

* * *

Perhaps it was Rhea's imagination, but Vladimir and Augusta did not particularly strike her as nice people. Of course, she didn't like to judge a book by its cover, but it was undeniable that the pair she and Brandaris were facing looked rather sinister.

Augusta was by far one of the most beautiful girls at Beacon Academy, but there was an evil light in her eyes and a cruel twist to her mouth that hinted at a more menacing nature than her pretty face first implied. Her weapon was a spear, longer than Augusta was tall, but the girl nonetheless twirled it expertly.

Brandaris for his part was staring intently at their other opponent, a hulking man almost seven feet tall with bright red hair. The giant looked familiar to Brandaris, and it wasn't impossible that he could have been a fellow resident of Vale like Astarte, but the policeman in him was screaming warning.

Vladimir grinned nastily at Rhea and Brandaris. The massive morningstar held loosely in Vladimir's right hand looked like a toy, but both members of Team BRCK knew it could very easily kill them if they had no aura protection. Upon closer inspection, the spikes on the flail's weighted head were made of sharpened Dust crystals. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that this was a weapon meant to kill.

There was no easy banter as there had been in the previous round. Both teams sized each other up silently, though Brandaris and Rhea could only guess what Vladimir and Augusta were thinking. The buzzer rang suddenly, signaling the beginning of the match.

With a loud roar, Vladimir sprang forward, faster than his bulk seemingly allowed. Brandaris and Rhea sprang to either side as the morningstar's spiked head smashed into the gym floor, sending small sparks of fire and ice flying. Rhea pulled Battoujutsu from their holsters and began firing them at the giant, but that only seemed to annoy him. Vladimir pulled his weapon free and stalked toward Rhea, brushing aside her gunfire as though they were nothing.

Brandaris rushed forward to aid his teammate but was cut off by a slash of Augusta's spear, which was punctuated by a burst of fire. Brandaris groaned; of course her weapon had to be infused with Dust. Augusta jabbed repeatedly at Brandaris's head and torso, no doubt hoping that his weaponized boots wouldn't be able to deflect her spear. Brandaris however, had a lot of experience against people who underestimated his boots.

Brandaris leapt backward in a perfect backflip, kicking off an explosion at Augusta as he did so. His opponent dispelled the blast with a whirl of her spear, and followed Brandaris, which was exactly what he had wanted. Landing on his forearms, the leader of Team BRCK twisted his hips, whirling his legs like propeller blades. Augusta tried to back up, but she was too slow, and Brandaris managed to land a solid kick to her side.

Meanwhile, Rhea was skillfully avoiding every swing of Vladimir's morningstar. As deadly as it was, it wasn't a very fast weapon. Much to Rhea's surprise however, her back hit the wall of the gym. Somehow, Vladimir had maneuvered her into the corner and was now looming over her, weapon raised high. "Nowhere to run now, shorty." Vladimir's deep voice rumbled.

Rhea bristled at the remark about her lack of height. "Take your best shot, muscle head. See what happens when your oversized baby rattle meets my Semblance."

To her surprise, Vladimir chuckled, the sound seeming to vibrate the very air around her. "Oh, I know all about your Reflection. I wonder how it'll do against Impaler?"

Brandaris's eyes widened, and he whirled around, the pieces in his mind fitting together. "Rhea! Get away from him! Don't let his weapon to- aarrghh-" He stopped as Augusta's spear jabbed into the small of his back. Though the point didn't penetrate through his aura, the electricity flowing through it certainly did, and Brandaris fell to his knees.

Rhea heard Brandaris's warning, and dived through Vladimir's legs just as the morningstar came crashing down. She whirled around to see the giant's weapon impossibly whizzing toward her already, and it occurred to her that her opponent might have been lulling her into a false sense of security earlier. That was all that she had time for before the metal sphere smacked her squarely in the center of her torso. Horrifyingly, Rhea felt her ribs crack and give way, as she was flung through the air. Shock numbed the pain mercifully, and before Rhea lapsed into unconsciousness, she wondered why her Semblance hadn't protected her.

"Rhea!" Brandaris shouted as his partner bounced across the gym, limp as a rag doll. He rolled to the side as Augusta stabbed at him, her spearpoint crackling with ice this time. Brandaris swept the feet out from under the girl, sending her to the floor, and brought Sinistra down at her head. Unfortunately, Augusta was too fast, and she managed to block it in the nick of time with the haft of her spear.

"Getting slow, are we?" Augusta taunted. "You'll end up like your partner soon enough."

"Shut. Up." Brandaris growled. He feinted a kick with his left leg, then swiftly brought up Dexter as his opponent moved to block him. A perfectly executed side kick, accompanied by a healthy blast of concussive explosion, sent Augusta flying, and she smacked into the far wall before sliding down to the floor, unmoving.

"As skilled as ever, I see." Vladimir's voice boomed, and Brandaris whirled around to face the taller man.

"You. Aren't you supposed to be behind bars?" Brandaris snarled. He remembered Vladimir Scarlett now. A former member of the Triple Claw Triad, the giant had been sent to prison months ago for Dust trafficking.

"They let me out early for good behavior." Vladimir spread his hands wide. "I'm a changed man, officer."

"I'm sure." Brandaris opened his mouth and began singing, activating his own Semblance. The Siren Song filled the air, so loud and strong that even members of the audience in the path began to slow down. Vladimir grimaced, but he could do nothing but stand frozen as Brandaris approached. Blades popped out of the sides of Sinistra and Dexter, spinning with deadly speed.

Brandaris tried to raise his right leg to kick Vladimir, but suddenly Dexter seemed as heavy as a lead weight. The Siren Song faltered for a second, as Brandaris fought to stay awake, eyelids drooping. He blinked, suddenly exhausted. 'What's going on?' He wondered.

There was a sudden flash of purple, and Brandaris turned in time to see Augusta streak past him, spear outstretched and glowing gray. Brandaris tried to dodge, but found that his feet were glued to the floor, encased in stone. He had been too slow. Augusta had already gotten him. It must have been her Semblance that had brought on the sudden bout of exhaustion, Brandaris realized.

As he turned back to Vladimir however, the leader of Team BRCK realized something else. He had stopped singing.

The buzzer rang loudly as Brandaris crashed to the floor, the bones in his left arm shattered.

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Trial By Combat: Part III**

* * *

The gym was silent this time as Brandaris and Rhea were carried to the nurse's office. Their broken bones were already healing, since Vladimir's Semblance left aura intact, but unlike the losers from the previous round, the two were too injured to watch the remaining fights.

"What the fuck was that?!" Deynares hissed angrily. "Why the hell didn't Harriet stop that before Rhea and Brandaris got hurt?!"

"People have already died at this school, Deynares." Astarte replied, stone-faced. "This is combat class, people were going to get hurt, one way or another."

"Still, that was just... brutal..." Drach mumbled. "I hope we don't face the other half of that team."

"I'm hoping that we do." Kaine's voice was calm, but his knuckles were white. He unclenched his fists and let out a slow breath. "Damn." The spiky haired boy winced as he looked at his bleeding palms. "I need to cut my nails again."

"Drago von Flammen and Astarte Callampe of Team SAND versus Lattia Honey and Romulus Lupinus of Team VALR." Harriet said in a tight voice. Her face showed no emotion, but it was evident from the way her clipboard was trembling that she had been shaken by the brutality of the previous round.

"Why do you even open your mouth, Drago?" Astarte grumbled as the two of them made their way to the gym floor.

* * *

"Plan of attack?" Astarte whispered out of the side of her mouth.

"Don't let them get close, use our Semblances to keep them at bay, hit hard and fast." Drach replied quietly.

The other two members of Team VALR didn't look too intimidating. Lattia Honey was a rather plain looking girl with long brown hair, while Romulus Lupinus appeared to be a skinny teenager with a mop of dirty blonde framing his face. Where Vladimir and Augusta had had sadism written all over them, these two looked as though a strong wind would push them over.

It's always the quiet ones, though. Astarte thought grimly. Oddly enough, it didn't occur to her that that statement could very well apply to her as well. Oh, is that the buzzer?

Romulus bent down to whisper something in Lattia's ear, and the girl nodded once before vanishing. Drach took a step back in shock before yelling, "Astarte, duck!"

A wave of fire spread out from Drago in a circle, forcing Romulus to take several steps back. Hopefully, it had warned Lattia away as well. Astarte was getting to her feet, her hair smoking. A familiar scent of ozone filled the air, and Drago's hair stood on end.

BOOM

Lightning arced out from Astarte's strange weapon, streaking through the air toward Romulus, who managed to dodge out of the way. The skinny boy grimaced before yelling, "Now!"

The last thing Drach saw before everything dissolved into light and pain was a thin loop of wire descending over his head. Lattia had used her weapon, a long, thick cord, to climb to the ceiling of the gym invisibly, and now she had lassoed Drach with the electrified rope.

Astarte watched her partner flop around like a dying fish dispassionately. I wonder if electrocuting him will help build an immunity to lightning attacks? Something to try later... Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a glint of metal, and snatched the end of Romulus's chain whip, noting the wickedly sharp axe head attached to it.

"You're fast." Romulus smirked.

"And you're dumb." Astarte retorted, touching the tip of Gravitas to the metal links that made up Romulus's whip. There was a sharp SNAP and her opponent dropped his weapon with a high-pitched yelp. Astarte pulled the rest of the chain whip toward her and gathered it up before hurling it to the far side of the gym.

CRACK!

Astarte winced as a sharp pain spread across her left shoulder. Lattia was nowhere to be seen, but evidently she was using her rope like a whip now. Drach lay nearby, unmoving, and Astarte guessed that he must be incapacitated.

CRACK!

CRACK!

This is really starting to get annoying, Astarte thought. Lattia was nowhere to be seen, and though her whip wasn't much more than an annoyance, her constant attacks were starting to deplete Astarte's aura. Not to mention, Romulus was still up.

Okay, so she has an electric whip, which might mean that my lightning won't affect her. If I could just catch her rope... Almost as if whatever gods governed Remnant had heard Astarte, Lattia's rope wrapped around Astarte's sword arm. The dead-eyed girl felt her arm being pulled, as if to pull her off balance, and Romulus's axe-headed chain whip knocked Gravitas out of Astarte's hand.

Astarte swore angrily before yanking hard on Lattia's rope. The plain girl was strong, but not nearly as strong as Astarte, and she was pulled through the air right into the path of her opponent's fist. Lattia faded into view, holding her bleeding nose. By sheer chance, Astarte had managed to punch her in the face.

"Too easy." Astarte mumbled. Lattia's rope was still wrapped around her arm, and she pulled again. Lattia's eyes widened as she was yanked toward the blonde with a terrifyingly blank look on her face, and she let out a small whimper before Astarte kicked her in the stomach. Lattia quickly let go of her rope, as it was now tangled around Astarte's arm, but the latter girl had guessed correctly that the pain of her injuries made the former unable to focus enough to use her Semblance.

Astarte smiled for the first time since the match had begun, and she slipped into a boxing stance. Lattia tried to back away, but the blond girl shot forward and landed a perfect left hook to her jaw. Lattia's eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped to the floor.

Unfortunately for Astarte, she wasn't done yet, and she had to sidestep Romulus's axehead hurtling through the air. She tried to retrieve Gravitas, but Romulus was wielding his whip much more expertly now, too fast for her to catch. Astarte was managing to evade the deadly metal links, but she was growing more and more tired, while Romulus was still relatively fresh.

Damn it. Might have to use Raijin. Astarte was loath to use her full Semblance, as it had a tendency to deplete her aura completely. Even if she took out Romulus, the match would likely end in a draw, unless Drach woke up, and that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

The axehead hissed through the air and came within an inch of Astarte's ribs. No choice. I have to do this.

KABOOM!

Astarte's long blonde hair stood on end, crackling with static. Her eyes were glowing brightly, and bolts of lightning sizzled just above her skin. Romulus's eyes widened, and he backed away a little, but to no avail. There was a flash of blinding light, and Astarte appeared to teleport to him. In the blink of an eye, Romulus was lying spread-eagled on the floor, his hair sticking up at odd angles and smoking and limbs twitching like a dying insect.

The buzzer rang just as the golden light faded from Astarte's eyes, and she fell to the floor, unconscious. Harriet scribbled something onto her clipboard and announced, "Draw!"

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Trial by Combat: Part IV**

* * *

Though they were mostly unaware of it, Team BRCK was widely regarded by many of their peers and several of their instructors to be the top team in the school, even though they constantly bickered and occasionally failed to show up to class on time, or at all, in Kaine's case. By sheer chance, some of the most experienced fighters in the school had been paired with one another during the Initiation. That they were able to work together well was a bonus. So it was with some anticipation that the other students watched Kaine Oune and Deynares Cuin step onto the gym floor to face the remaining members of Team GOLD, Khai Obsidian and Dominic Ivory.

"You take the guy with the top hat, I'll get the one with the scythe thingy." Deynares pointed at the respective members of Team GOLD. Kaine frowned, sizing up the pair. The former, Khai, was rather short and wore a button-up shirt with a bow tie of all things, and had long black hair cascading down from his top hat. The latter, Dominic, was about his height, with medium length white hair and a more normal outfit of a t-shirt and jeans.

"Scythe thingy?" Kaine grunted. "Of course you take the one with the more dangerous looking weapon."

"Well duh." Deynares playfully kicked Kaine. "You wouldn't be able to take him."

"Let's just get this over with." Her partner sighed, unclipping his pistols from his belt. As if on cue, the buzzer rang, and Deynares lunged toward Dominic with an adrenaline-fueled roar. The white-haired boy barely had time to bring his double-headed scythe up before Deynares's shield slammed into it. Almost as soon as they clashed, Deynares lifted her foot to Dominic's chest and pushed hard, sending him sprawling.

Khai sidestepped the ensuing brawl, and twirled his weapon, a strange looking cane with an odd protrusion jutting out halfway down its length. "I'll try to make this quick." He grinned, and raised the cane to his shoulder. It quickly became apparent to the watching crowd that the aforementioned odd protrusion was the scope of a sniper rifle.

A shining spark whistled out of the end of the cane, but Kaine batted it aside with the blade that had popped out from the top of his pistol. With a loud SNIKT, three more blades popped out from the tops and bottoms of Ultor Maul, until Kaine was holding a double-bladed sword in each hand. Slowly, he began to stalk toward Khai.

Khai kept firing at Kaine with his sniper cane, but the spiky haired boy blocked each shot with a flash of metal or simply took it in stride, silver aura flaring brighter and brighter with each hit. Gradually, Kaine picked up speed until he was sprinting, and he body-slammed Khai, who was sent flying by the force of the blow.

Hearing a high-pitched scream, Kaine turned around only to see Dominic backing up quickly under an onslaught of three small dragons. Deynares was standing by, laughing maniacally. Kaine shook his head and looked back to Khai in time to see a blast of sizzling light hurtling toward his face. He tried to bat it out of the air, but it hit at the wrong angle, knocking one of his pistol-swords from his hand. Kaine's eyes narrowed, and he glared at his opponent.

"I'm sorry." Kaine gritted his teeth. "But I've got a lot on my mind right now, places to be, and you're in my way. So I'm gonna take out my anger on you." The twin blades of the weapon still clenched in Kaine's hand began to spin, slowly at first and then faster until they were a blur of metal and light around the spiky-haired boy.

Khai's eyes widened in actual fear as he drew a thin rapier-like blade from his cane. Desperately, he parried the lightning fast blows from Kaine's sword as best as he could, but the other boy's speed and strength broke through his defenses numerous times, each hit punctuated with a burst of emerald light. Khai threw himself backward in a somersault and took off his top hat. When he gave it a firm shake, the hat collapsed into a flat black disc which began to glow bright green.

Khai wound up his arm, then hurled his hat at Kaine with all his might. The glowing disc sliced through the air toward Kaine's neck, but he simply leaned out of the way. Much to his surprise however, the hat curved back around, forcing the spiky-haired boy to duck. Disregarding the laws of physics entirely, the black disc continued to assault Kaine until he grew irritated and swiped at it with a fist.

There was a small explosion of green and silver, as Khai's aura, infused into his hat, collided with Kaine's. Kaine was thrown across the floor, his other sword skittering from his grasp. He sprang up almost immediately to retrieve his sword, but a shot from Khai's sniper cane knocked it away. Placing his top hat squarely on his head, Khai aimed his weapon at Kaine and fired within the space of a second.

Acting purely on instinct, Kaine reached out with his hand and snatched the glowing spark out of the air. For a split second, he felt intense heat scorching his palm and fingers, then his aura flared blindingly around his hand, extinguishing Khai's projectile. Kaine opened his hand and flexed his fingers, inspecting them. An angry red welt marred the palm of his hand, smoke rising from the burn.

"Look out!" Deynares called, and Kaine dodged to the side as Dominic went flying past him to smack squarely into Khai. The two members of Team GOLD got to their feet slowly, and looked at one another. As he picked up Ultor Maul, Kaine noticed that Dominic's face and neck were very red, and he raised an eyebrow at his partner.

"I tried to choke him out, but it didn't work." Deynares shrugged. "Looks like they're switching things up."

"Let's end this." Kaine retracted the blades of his weapon into the pistols that made up their hilts. He watched as Deynares summoned her small dragons again, setting them on Khai. The glowing golden reptiles moved far too quickly for the boy to land a shot, and he was quickly reduced to swinging his cane at them. He reached for his top hat, but a dragon swooped down and carried it off.

Suddenly, the dragons vanished, and Khai looked around wildly, wondering where they had gone. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of movement, and he turned in time for Deynares, on the back of a single larger dragon, to smash her lance right into his chest, knocking him out.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Kaine turned around to see Dominic twirling his double-headed scythe. Unlike earlier, the blades of the scythe were pointing parallel to the staff, as opposed to their normal perpendicular position. Snorting loudly, the spiky haired boy lifted his pistol and shot Dominic in the face with ice Dust, encasing his head in a block of ice. Borrowing a move from Brandaris's repertoire, Kaine surged forward and shattered the ice around Dominic's head in a side kick.

As Dominic fell to the floor, the buzzer rang loudly, signaling the end of the match. Harriet announced Kaine and Deynares as the winners, and dismissed the class. The other students would fight tomorrow.

* * *

"What do you mean it was my fault?!" Rhea screeched from her prone position on the hospital bed. She pointed at Brandaris, who was sitting upright in the bed beside her with a bandaged arm. "You're the one who got distracted by Augusta!"

"Well, if you hadn't been cocky and backed yourself into a corner, I wouldn't have had to warn you about Vladimir's Semblance." Brandaris replied. "I was doing just fine until you distracted me and got me stabbed with an electric spear. You just had to ask him to hit you."

"There's a difference between being concerned about a teammate and being able to still fight effectively and getting distracted." Rhea sniffed. "I'd say the fault therein is with you for your damage. My damage was my own fault."

"All I'm saying is that someone didn't get backed into a corner, I would most likely have 100% fewer shattered bones."

"Yes, and I take fault for MY share of those broken bones, as in MY ribs!"

"Cool, so it won't be a problem if you take fault for mine too."

"I- No! We both share and take our own individual blame!"

"Should we stop them?" Sakura asked with wide eyes. The members of Team SAND and Kaine and Deynares had stopped by to visit Brandaris and Rhea only to find the two patients arguing heatedly over whose fault it was they had been injured.

"It sounds pretty serious." Nao agreed.

"Nah." Kaine snickered. "That's how you know they're okay."

"Honestly, it would be weirder if they weren't bickering like a dysfunctional old couple." Deynares nodded.

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Mother's Day**

* * *

"I'm just saying..." Deynares's voice trailed off as she realized that her words were falling upon deaf ears. Kaine and Rhea were frozen in the middle of the sidewalk, identical looks of horror on their faces. "Guys? Is something wrong?"

"Oh no-" Kaine whimpered

"What is she doing here?" Rhea hissed

"I don't know, should we run?" Kaine's eyes widened. "Oh fuck, she's seen us."

"Will someone explain to me what the hell is going on?" Deynares frowned. "Who is this person you're talking about?"

"Kaine! Rhea!"

Deynares turned around to see a tiny woman with short black hair walking toward them. As she came closer, Deynares realized that the woman bore a strong resemblance to her partner. "Uh, who-"

"Hi..." Rhea cringed visibly.

"Mom..." Kaine grinned weakly and waved. "What..."

"What am I doing here?" The woman, who was barely taller than Rhea planted her fists on her hips. "You never call, you take weeks to respond to my letters, and your younger brother is driving me crazy without you two around. Also, the Vale Police Department needed my help."

"You have a younger brother?" Deynares stared at her teammates. "How come I've never heard about him?"

"It never came up in conversation." Kaine mumbled. "But Mom-"

"You must be Deynares. I've heard so much about you." Ignoring Kaine completely, the woman turned to Deynares, grabbing her hand in a firm handshake. "I'm Kaine and Rhea's mother, but you can call me Kristyna."

"Nice to meet you." Deynares shook Kristyna's hand. "I didn't know Kaine and Rhea had a younger brother. Is he here too?"

"No, I trust Gareth to be fine home alone for a week. Even if he did blow up the kitchen."

"That is awesome." Deynares grinned. "I wanna meet him now."

"Well, you're always welcome to come over during the winter break." Kristyna smiled. "And Gareth might be coming to Beacon next spring."

"Are-are you sure?" Deynares blinked in surprise. "I can be kinda... destructive."

"So I've been told." Kristyna grabbed Rhea and Kaine by the collar as they were trying to escape quietly. "But it can't be any worse than what the three hooligans I've raised do on a regular basis."

"Well, I've never blown up a kitchen, so I might take you up on that offer." Deynares shrugged.

"Wonderful. Tell Brandaris he's invited too, if he likes." Kristyna let go of her struggling children. "You know, Deynares, you're like the daughter I never had. Well, more like the one I actually wanted."

"Mom!" Rhea shouted. "I'm right here."

"And?" Kristyna smiled sweetly. "Well, I have to be off now. Kaine, behave yourself, and Rhea, be more like Deynares here."

* * *

"What's Ozpin doing here?" Deynares whispered to Astarte, who shrugged and went back to making a voodoo doll of Drago. The students were gathered in the gym for Harriet's class, as they had been for the past few weeks. Unlike the past few weeks however, it wasn't their combat instructor who stood in the front of the classroom, but the headmaster of Beacon Academy.

"Shush." Brandaris hissed.

"You shush." Deynares rolled her eyes but stopped talking regardless.

"-please welcome our guest instructor, Kristyna Oune." At this, all eyes in the gym looked to Kaine, who was actually present for once. The spiky-haired boy sank into his seat, groaning quietly.

"Hello everyone." The tiny woman shouted as she pulled a wagon full of large, rattling cages into the gym. "Now, I know you've all fought Grimm before, but I've got a special treat for you today. Now, I'm going to need two volunt- ah, Kaine, Rhea, get over here. You two will be my guinea pigs."

"Whyyy..." Kaine whined as Rhea dragged him down to the gym floor, where their maternal figure was unloading a cage from the wagon.

"I hope you two have improved since you last faced off against one of these." Kristyna said seriously as she began to unlatch the cage. "Even without Gareth, you two should be able to take out this one within five minutes."

CLICK

Kristyna quickly backed away as the cage door sprang open. Several of the students in the audience screamed loudly, most notably Dominic Ivory, as a horrifically long Creature of Grimm slithered out. At first glance, one might have mistaken it for a King Taijitu, but unlike the serpentine Grimm, this monstrosity had a shiny black carapace and far, far too many legs. It must have been coiled very tightly in the cage, because when the last pair of sharp legs had skittered out, the creature measured nearly a third of the length of the huge gym.

"What the fuck is that?!" Khai shouted.

"This is a Multipede." Kristyna replied with the utmost calm. "They're quite common in the areas around Granite Hills. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Granite Hills is the southernmost settlement along the coast of Vale, right on the edge of the wilderness."

"And we're going to fight one?!"

"Eventually." Kristyna pointed to the two students she had singled out. "For now, Kaine and Rhea will demonstrate an attack strategy that is quite useful against this type of Grimm."

"It would be nice if she had specified what that attack strategy was." Kaine grumbled as he cartwheeled out of the way of the Multipede's strike.

"The Flying Vacuan." Rhea reminded him.

"Oh, that one!" Kaine's eyes lit up as the Multipede encircled the two teenagers and began drawing itself in. Spiky legs threatened to impale the two of them from all sides, and it was only the force of their auras that prevented Kaine and Rhea from becoming pincushions. "Well, better do it fast. Now!"

In a practiced movement, Rhea leapt onto Kaine's shoulders as he leaned forward. Just as he straightened up, the tiny girl jumped with all the strength in her legs, arcing high into the air. As it happened, the Flying Vacuan was more than a catchy epithet. As was well known, Rhea was the adopted sister of Kaine Oune. Before she and her brother Gareth had come to live with Kristyna however, the two of them had originally hailed from a small village on Ten Seas Island, in the country of Vacuo.

Rhea landed lightly on the back of the Multipede and sprinted along its length until she reached the head of the creature. Stabbing the twin blades of Battoujutsu into the Grimm's eyes, Rhea seized the long antenna that protruded from the head, yanking to the side. The Multipede screeched in pain and followed the movement of its antenna, uncoiling from around Kaine, who immediately began hacking and stabbing at the Grimm.

Blinded, the Multipede could only screech and swing wildly as Kaine and Rhea slashed and stabbed at the joints of its legs, the only parts of its body that were not covered in black plates. Within minutes, the Multipede was missing half of its legs and finally began dissolving into black ash as Kaine impaled it with his swords.

Kristyna glanced at her watch and shook her head. "Six and a half minutes. I'm disappointed."

"Come on!" Kaine grumbled. His mother ignored him and turned to the watching students.

"As you saw, the attack strategy that Kaine and Rhea used capitalized on the Multipede's inability to focus on more than one opponent. While one remains within the Multipede's coil as a distraction or bait, the other will attack its eyes." Kristyna gestured at the cages behind her. "As frightening as Multipedes look, they're relatively easy to defeat, so long as you keep your head on straight. Most Grimm you will encounter further from larger centers of civilization will be like that. Remember that, when you come across creatures of Grimm like the Monokerata or the Naga."

Kristyna clapped her hands suddenly, startling the students. "Now, the rest of you will be facing off against the remaining Multipedes with your teams. Good luck!"

* * *

"AAAAHHHH!" Drago screeched as Team SAND's Multipede swung its head toward him. Ordinary bugs with too many legs and regular Grimm were bad enough, but when you combined the two, it really made Drago reconsider enrolling in a school that specialized in fighting such creatures.

"Drach!" Sakura shouted. "Calm down! Remember what Mrs. Oune said! You can't panic just because it looks really, really, really weird!"

"Give it up, Saki." Astarte aimed her curiously split sword at the Multipede, but was interrupted by a scream of horror.

"Look out!" Luna Nyx cried out. "We've lost control of it!"

Indeed, Team GOLD's Multipede, one of the largest specimens that Kristyna had captured, was thrashing about wildly, and George Albus was pinned beneath it. Khai's top hat whizzed through the air to explode into green sparks against the creature's shell, but it did nothing but irritate the already agitated Grimm. Dominic dashed forward, but he was knocked across the gym by a sweep of the monster's tail.

"Get back!"

Four glittering cables hissed through the air to wrap around the Multipede. With a disgusting ripping sound, the Multipede was torn bodily in half. The tail end fell limp and immediately began dissolving, but the front half began to thrash around even more wildly.

The metal wires suddenly retracted with a whizzing noise, revealing themselves to be a set of chain-whips that solidified into the blades of four identical swords, held at the end of each limb of Kristyna Oune. The guest instructor spun in midair, and the four swords suddenly disappeared and reappeared embedded in the head of the Multipede, having punched straight through the thick bone plate.

Kristyna landed lightly on the remains of the Multipede, pulling her four swords from the carcass. Quite a few of the students burst into applause, though Rhea noticed Nao frowning in confusion. She followed his line of vision, then realized what he was looking at. Kristyna's boots lay discarded nearby, revealing to all the hand-like monkey appendages that took the place of where the feet would be on a normal human.

* * *

 **Chapter 16: The Curse of Oune**

* * *

Kaine looked up at the blood red sky. Neither the bright sun nor Remnant's shattered moon was anywhere to be seen, yet the woods around the spiky-haired boy were still perfectly visible.

A twig snapped behind Kaine, and he instinctively ducked as a flash of slivery metal slashed through the air where his head had just been. The blade slammed into a tree, sticking there solidly. Kaine scrambled to his feet and turned to face his attacker, just in time to see the shadowy figure leaping toward him.

The mysterious assailant's tackle drove Kaine back, and he stumbled backward until his back hit a tree. The attacker leapt forward again, face shadowed beneath a shock of silvery gray hair. Kaine didn't move, however, waiting for the right moment. Just as his opponent was upon him, Kaine pulled the blade from the tree trunk behind him and drove it into the man's chest.

Silently, the white-haired figure slumped backward before toppling to the forest floor. Kaine shuddered, feeling rather sick. With a jolt however, he registered the shape of the blade still embedded in his attacker's chest, the one that the man had thrown at him. The familiar pistol-handled grip, and a second aperture at the other end of the hilt that the second blade extended from... There was not a doubt in Kaine's mind that the weapon was his own, one of the matched gun-swords that made up Ultor Mars, or at least a very convincing copy, given that Ultor Mars was holstered in Kaine's belt. But how had this mysterious man gotten the weapon, and who was he, for that matter?

Kaine knelt by the man's face, which was still obscured by his long hair. Slowly, he brushed the hair back, then reeled back in shock. Though the eyes that stared up sightlessly were blood red, and the man's hair silver, the face that Kaine saw was unmistakably his own. "What the hell?"

The ground seemed to tilt beneath Kaine's feet, and blood roared in his ears. He tried to take a step back, but his feet seemed to be stuck to the earth. The corpse in front of him disappeared into a puff of black smoke that didn't dissipate but began to spread, consuming everything. As the darkness enveloped Kaine, the ground vanished, and he tumbled through nothingness, falling endlessly.

"NooooaaaaaAAARRRGGGHHH!" Kaine sat up quickly, breathing hard. His body was damp with sweat, and his heart was racing. Kaine looked around the room, noting the sunlight filtering in through the open window and the empty beds. Where was everyone? For a brief moment, Kaine thought he'd overslept and was going to miss class again, but realized that it was in fact a weekend.

"Hello?" Kaine called out. "Guys?" There was no response. "Well, thanks for waiting for me."

* * *

"Hurry up, Drach! We're gonna be late!" George hissed. He and Drago were sprinting as fast as they could toward Beacon, while trying to make sure the box held in George's hands didn't tilt too much.

"It's not my fault that the bakery didn't open until nine!" Drago retorted.

"You were the one who said that it was gonna be open early!" George roared. "Of course it's your fault!"

"I'm not from around here!" Drago grumbled. "Why would you think it was a good idea to listen to the student who's from out of town?!"

"I don't know!" George wailed. "Why did Sakura think it was a good idea to send us to get the cake?!"

"Get a grip, you two." Astarte scoffed.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Drago gaped at his partner, who had seeming appeared out of nowhere.

"You guys are so slow." The blonde rolled her eyes as she snatched the box from George. "Try to keep up." With a flicker of lightning, Astarte sprinted away, easily outstripping both boys.

"What a woman." George panted. "Can we take a break?"

"Yeah..." Drago gasped as he fell to his knees. "Just... need... to... catch... my... breath..."

* * *

"Hello?" Kaine knocked on the door of Team SAND's room. "Drach? Nao? Is anyone there?"

The door swung open to reveal Sakura, who raised an eyebrow at the sight of the spiky haired boy. "Can I help you?"

"Have you seen my teammates?" Kaine pointed toward his room. "They've all just disappeared."

"Nope." Sakura replied coolly. There was a moment of awkward silence before the leader of Team SAND decided to have pity on her visitor. "I know where they are, if that helps."

"Eh?" Kaine frowned. "Didn't you say-"

"I said I haven't seen your teammates, which I haven't so far today." Sakura corrected. "I do know they're with Team GOLD."

"Oh... thanks?" Kaine scratched his head. "I'll just go then..." He took a few steps down the hall before realizing he didn't actually know where Team GOLD's room was. "Uh..."

"Just follow me." Sakura smirked as she started walking in the opposite direction. Kaine jogged quickly to catch up to her. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the spiky haired boy was sure that they went in a circle several times.

"Hey, haven't we passed through here already?"

"No, but all the doors look the same, so it's hard to tell." Sakura gestured at the identical doors that housed the many teams of Beacon Academy.

"You know, it's okay to admit you don't know where we're going." Kaine grumbled. "We could always just start knocking on doors at random."

"We're not lost, Kaine." Sakura rolled her eyes. "We're almost there."

"What're Brandaris, Rhea, and Deynares doing at Team GOLD's place, anyways?" Kaine wondered out loud.

"Ask them yourself. We're here." Sakura replied with a smile as she knocked on the door they had just stopped in front of.

* * *

"SURPRISE!"

"Gah!" Kaine flinched at the loud noise. "What?"

"It's your birthday, you dummy!" Deynares grinned.

"You forgot what day it is again, didn't you?" Rhea laughed.

"Hey, it's not like we have a calendar in our room." Kaine protested, looking around Team GOLD's room. The beds had been haphazardly pushed to the sides of the room, and a slightly damaged cake sat on a nearby desk.

"That's Astarte's fault." Drago pointed to the cake. "She went a little bit too fast."

"Only because you and George are slower than a Tetsudo with three legs." His partner deadpanned.

"It's fine, really." Kaine smiled.

"Oh, good." Nao smirked as he rolled up his sleeves. "Time for birthday punches!"

Kaine dodged out of the way of Nao's punch, picking up the cake and the knife beside it on the table as he did so. He smashed the cake into his friend's face. Nao staggered back as he tried to wipe the confectionary mess off of his face, and Kaine punched him sharply in the gut. As Nao doubled over in pain, Kaine drove the knife in his hand into the white haired boy's exposed neck twice before grabbing Nao's head and twisting it until a loud crack rang out. Silently, Nao fell to the ground.

Kaine blinked twice before catching Nao's fist in his hand. The ground seemed to tilt beneath his feet, and there was a loud ringing noise piercing his ears. What the hell had just happened? Had he just hallucinated violently murdering his friend? Feeling slightly ill, Kaine let go of Nao's hand before ducking out of the room, mumbling something about needing some air.

* * *

Ultor Maul flashed as it sliced through the air and the neck of the Nevermore. Kaine spun in a circle before kicking another Grimm out of the air and stabbing it through with his sword blades. The young man forced himself to breathe slowly as he surveyed the clearing around him. Nearly twenty Grimm of various shapes and size lay slowly dissolving into black ash. Kaine leaned against a nearby tree, realizing how exhausted he was. For the past few hours, he'd been running through the Emerald Forest, killing every Creature of Grimm in his path.

The ease with which he dispatched each one was not concerning, or even unusual for that matter. He'd been trained in fighting Grimm for years even before coming to Beacon, to the point that he was one of the best in the school when it came to fighting them. What concerned him were the visions. Similar to the hallucination he'd had earlier of killing Nao, every Grimm kill had been preceded by a vision of Kaine ripping them apart viciously. It hadn't taken him long to realize that each hallucination detailed the most efficient way to slay his target.

Silently, Kaine watched the remnants of the Grimm blow away in the breeze. It was all well and good if the visions only worked for Grimm, but earlier, he'd seen himself brutally murder his friend. What if he lost control and accidentally ended up killing someone he didn't want to? He was quite sure he hadn't wanted to snap Nao's neck earlier.

"Kaine?"

The spiky haired boy nearly leapt out of his skin at the sound of his name. He nearly unsheathed his claws, though he was immediately relieved that he hadn't when he saw who it was. "Sakura? What're you doing here?"

"Looking for you, idiot." Sakura crossed her arms. "We've all been searching for you since you ran off after your birthday party."

"Huh? I said I was gonna be gone for a while." Kaine mumbled as he thumbed the dial on Ultor Maul, retracting the blades back into the pistol handles. "You didn't have to come looking for me."

"Kaine, it's been almost six hours." Sakura pointed at the sky. "The sun is going down. We were getting worried about you."

"Why?" Kaine snorted. "It's not like I can handle myself." He turned and began climbing up the tree he'd been leaning against. He didn't much feel like talking, and he was even more afraid he'd have another hallucination. Killing both the Murasakis, even in his imagination, didn't sit well with him. Kaine finally reached a high branch that was above most of the forest canopy. It was a rather large tree.

There was a crackling of ice, and Sakura rose up on a growing mound of ice, joining Kaine on the tree branch. "Because we're your friends. Your teammates, my team, GOLD, we worry because we care."

"Well, don't." Kaine shook his head. "I'm fine, really. I just... something was on my mind and I needed to get it out of my system."

"Care to elaborate on that incredibly vague statement?"

"It's just... I..." Kaine sighed. "I've just had some really weird thoughts. Things I shouldn't be thinking, y'know?"

Sakura pursed her lips. "You know, it's perfectly normal for you to be experiencing some changes-"

"I'm seventeen, Sak." Kaine said sharply. "I'm pretty sure I've gone through puberty already."

"Eighteen now." The white-haired girl smiled as she put her hand on Kaine's shoulder. "It was your birthday today." She reminded him as she sat down on the tree branch beside him.

An alarming thought struck Kaine. He'd heard from Rhea about the Murasaki twins' unfortunate history with Faunus, and his mother had taken off her boots to save Team GOLD from the Multipede. Kaine surreptitiously checked his hands, making sure that his claws weren't extended. However, Sakura's next words froze his blood.

"I know you're a Faunus, Kaine." The leader of Team SAND said calmly.

"H-how-"

"We all saw your mother's monkey feet. And while Rhea was adopted, she didn't change her name. But you have the same last name as your mother. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you're Kristyna's actual child."

"Sakura, I-" Kaine stammered, looking down at his hands. "I know you and your brother-"

"Have a bad history with your kind?" Sakura interrupted. "Yeah, we do. Nao and I have dealt with it in different ways. He's convinced himself that you're adopted like Rhea, which is how he is with pretty much everything that bothers him. He bottles it up, pretends everything's alright and tries to put on this cool attitude while I, well, I'm a bitch."

"You're not that-" Kaine began to protest, but Sakura stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth.

"Yes, I am. That's the point. I try to push everyone away from me, because I don't want to get close and find out that they're not what I thought they were. Lately though, it's been getting harder."

"Why's that?"

"People keep breaking through the walls I've put up. Your sister, Drach, even Astarte, they put up with me even though I make it hard for them to. Even with how messed up I am, the people around me don't seem to care at all."

"Well, we're all a little fucked up in our own way." Kaine quipped.

"Even so, you've overcome that." Sakura picked at the bark of the branch she and Kaine were sitting on. "Even though you're a Faunus, you're one of the best people I know."

"I'm just gonna pretend that wasn't offensive at all." Kaine muttered, though he privately wondered if Sakura would still think that if she knew that he'd had visions of killing her brother. "So why are you telling me all of this?"

"I don't know." The white-haired girl sighed. "I'm just really confused. I've hated Faunus all my life and thought they were all scum, but then you come along and you're a great guy, and you turn out to be part animal, and it's a lot for me to take in."

"Nobody's perfect." Kaine felt that that was true for him more than ever before. "Just... do what you think is right. That's all anyone can do, really."

There was a long moment of silence, before Sakura finally spoke. "Being here, talking with you, this feels pretty right to me."

"Well, we can't stay here forever." Kaine pointed at the horizon. "The sun's setting."

"That's true." Sakura leaned over to gently kiss Kaine on the cheek. "C'mon, we should get going."

* * *

Omake

"Damn it!" Drago swore under his breath as Nao scribbled on the paper on the desk in front of them.

"You've got one more chance, better make it count." Nao grinned.

"Um..." Drago racked his brain.

"I'll give you a hint. There's no real vowels in this word."

"What? That doesn't help at all!" Drago hissed. "Okay... T."

"Correct!" Nao filled in a blank space on the paper. The letters R, T, and M sat below a crude drawing of a man hanging from the gallows.

"What kind of word doesn't have vowels?" Drago grumbled.

"Rhythm." Brandaris mumbled from behind Drago. "Don't you think you should be doing your exam?"

"Looks like Brandaris wins." Nao snickered. "Sorry, Drach. It wasn't your win, so I'm keeping the money."

"Dammit Brandaris!" Drago groaned. "Why'd you have to go and do that?"

"What?" Brandaris turned back from several rows in front of Drago and Nao. "Why are you guys talking during the test?"

"Wait, what?" Nao pointed to Brandaris in confusion. "If you're there, who's behind us?"

Nao and Drago turned around to find Kyeran looming over them with fire in his eyes. The instructor had an uncanny knack for impersonating others' voices extremely accurately, and it was very apparent that he had been watching the two of them for quite some time. Seizing both boys by the hair, he cracked their skulls together before lifting them bodily and throwing them out of the classroom.

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Omake Dump**

* * *

Team BILLY

"So, who're you guys up against?" Rhea asked. "We're fighting Team BILLY." She pointed at a young man with dark green hair sitting by himself.

"Team BILLY? Never heard of them." Drach looked puzzled. "That's not a color name."

"Well... Team BILLY isn't your average group." Rhea shrugged. "Actually, it's not really a group. Billy was just the unlucky guy left without a partner by the end of Initiation."

"Wait, so he's a one man team?" Drach stared at the guy Rhea had pointed out. He'd assumed that was leader and the rest of the team were off somewhere else. "Why would Ozpin allow that?"

"Er... I don't know, honestly." Rhea scratched her head. "I think there were supposed to be enough students to make full teams but, well, people died."

"Oh yeah." Drach remembered the gorgeous redhead he'd met-

Pyrrha?

Yes Ruby?

Did you write yourself into the story as a character?

Nooo...

It's really obvious Mariette Apollo is a self-insert Mary Sue.

How could you tell, Blake?

Oh please, a super cute redhead with an overpowered Semblance that everyone except the bitch falls in love with on sight? You could have been more imaginative. I've seen better characterization from one of Blake's Ninjas of Love books, and those are all por-

Ruby! Ninjas of Love is a legitimate piece of literary art!

IT'S FILTH! FILTH!

Ugh. Look can we at least agree that Pyrrha is not great at writing fanfiction?

I'm sorry~!

Team Attacks

"I'm telling you, Tyrulian sounds better." Kaine argued.

"Yeah, but Cerurian makes more sense." Deynares retorted. "It's awkward and stupid, just like the move."

"What're you guys talking about?" Sakura asked as she sat down next to the two of them.

"Team attacks." Kaine mumbled through a mouthful of pancake. "Brandaris and Rhea's specifically."

"Really? My team attack with Nao is just Ice Age." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Nothing fancy, just our Semblances put together."

"Yeah, ours is Silverwing." Deynares pointed at her partner. "My dragon eats him."

Sakura stared at Deynares and Kaine for a long moment, wondering if she was kidding. She decided that she didn't want to know the answer to that question and cleared her throat. "So how do you get Tyrulian or Cerurian? It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with their Semblances."

"It's their names put together." Kaine explained. "So which one sounds better, Tyrulian or Cerurian?"

"Tyrulian flows much more nicely-"

"Ha! Told you!" Kaine's gloating was cut short when Deynares threw a sausage at him.

"Eat a dick, prick." The pink-haired girl smirked. "And Cerurian is better because it sounds worse."

"Why though?" Sakura was almost afraid to ask. "What is their team attack anyways?"

"Oh, it's not even an attack. It's just Brandaris annoying Rhea."

Follow the Leader

"Rhea Cerulian. Kaine Oune. Deynares Cuin. Brandaris Tyrian. The four of you retrieved the statue of the Ursa. From this day forth, you will be known as Team BRCK, led by Brandaris Tyrian."

"Why is he the leader?" Deynares grumbled cheerfully.

"He did lead us during that battle with the Grimm Widow." Kaine pointed out.

"Well, I'm still not listening to him." Deynares decided.

"Is that so?" Ozpin turned to look at the pink-haired girl. "I suppose I could make an exception... Henceforth you four will be known as Team KCRB, led by Deynares-"

"No." Rhea shook her head. "I refuse to be on a team named after shellfish."

"What's wrong with shellfish?" Brandaris asked.

"I'm allergic to them."

"Well, this team will probably kill you one way or another." Kaine quipped.

"How unfortunate." Ozpin cleared his throat. "Very well. Then you will be known as Team RBCK, led by Rhea Cerulian."

"How come I'm never picked to be the leader?" Kaine complained half-jokingly. Ozpin looked over at him with a quizzical look on his face.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

Cheesecake

Kaine hummed quietly to himself as he stirred the cream-colored sludge in the bowl. Dipping a finger in, he tasted the mixture and nodded in satisfaction. "Yeah, that'll do it." The spiky-haired boy poured the contents of the bowl into a metal pan. "Drach!"

"What?" Drago ambled into the kitchen. "Did you drink an entire gallon of soda again?"

"Pfft, nah. I just need you to bake this." Kaine pointed to the pan. "Thirty seconds of super heating should be enough."

"Why don't you just use the oven?" Drago snorted as he released a stream of intense fire from his hands.

"This is faster." Kaine replied. He checked the timer on his Scroll and quickly wiped the sweat forming on his brow. Even though it had only been about ten seconds and he was standing at least ten feet away from Drago, the heat in the kitchen had risen to unbearable levels.

"Are you two idiots trying to set off the fire alarm?" Sakura snapped as she entered the kitchen. "Drago, what the hell are you doing?"

"Baking a cake."

"Sakura, perfect timing." Kaine looked down at the scroll. "Okay, that's enough, Drach."

Immediately, the heat and flames died away, leaving a red-hot pan and a steaming cheesecake. "Sak, could you cool this down for me?" Kaine pointed at the pan.

"Don't call me that." Sakura frowned as she walked over to the pan. She touched the tip of her finger to the glowing metal and immediately a layer of frost formed over the pan. The steam emanating from the cheesecake was cut off immediately.

"Smells good, dude." Rhea exclaimed from the living room.

"When do I ever cook anything that doesn't smell good?" Kaine shouted to his sister. He turned back to the counter and blinked in surprise. The cheesecake, and Drago and Sakura, had vanished. "Not again." Kaine groaned and dashed out to the living room. He was too late. Team SAND and the rest of team BRCK had already devoured the entire cheesecake, leaving an empty pan.

"My cheesecake..." Kaine wept in despair. "Why...?"

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Scarlet Shatterpoint**

* * *

"Mr. Murasaki, what do you have to say for yourself?" The headmaster of Beacon Academy glared at the young man sullenly sitting in front of his desk. "This is the second time in the past week that you've been reported for fighting."

"It wasn't even my fault this time!" Nao protested. "Those animals started-"

"Enough." Ozpin sternly cut off Nao. "This is precisely why we are having this problem, Mr. Murasaki. I am well aware of your unfortunate past, but it is unacceptable for you to be acting upon your prejudices and brawling with Faunus both in and out of this school."

"I don't go looking for fights with the Triple Claw Triad anymore." Nao grumbled. "Besides, what am I supposed to do when the Faunus here attack me? Lie down and let them walk all over me?"

"No, I expect you to be more diplomatic. Kyeran tells me that while your assailants were the instigators, you responded in kind and escalated the situation." Ozpin sighed. "Mr. Murasaki, your team is one of the best at Beacon. It is my sincere hope that you will represent the school in the upcoming Vytal Festival, but if this behavior continues, I will have no choice but to forbid you and the rest of Team SAND from participating."

"I-" Nao began to argue but the dangerous glint in Ozpin's blue eyes made him reconsider. "Sorry, sir. Won't happen again."

"Good." Ozpin nodded. "Dismissed."

* * *

Nao shuffled down the hallway miserably. Though he didn't much care what the half-beasts that Ozpin let into the school thought of him, it rankled him that he wasn't even allowed to defend himself from their attacks, physical or verbal. Even though he hadn't seen anyone listening in on his meeting with the headmaster, Nao knew better than to expect that the conversation would remain secret. No doubt the news would spread through the halls of Beacon quickly; rumors had a way of traveling swiftly.

Speaking of rumors... Nao wasn't surprised to see yet another message scrawled across the wall in bright red ink. Though the staff cleared away the graffiti as fast as it came, every other day or so some hapless student's secret ended up painted where everyone could see. The messages had started several weeks ago, though they mostly had to do with who was cheating on whom. Everyone had assumed it was the result of ordinary teenage drama, and left it at that.

But as the weeks passed, the revelations became darker and darker. Several students had been outed as being gay, or Faunus, or from Mistral or Atlas, formerly the enemies of Vale. A week ago, Nao had become one of the victims of the secret revealers. Whoever was behind the messages had revealed to the school's population that Nao was a Faunus-hater and had fought with the Triple Claw Triad, and since then he'd become a target for many Faunus in the school who either had ties to the Triple Claw Triad or otherwise wanted to get some measure of revenge for the discrimination against their kind. Out of morbid curiosity, Nao looked over at the red letters staining the walls like blood before doing a double take.

Kaine Oune is a Faunus. He has claws.

Nao nearly laughed out loud at that. Whoever was writing the messages was clearly making the assumption that just because Mrs. Oune had turned out to be a Faunus, Kaine was as well. I'm pretty sure I would know if Kaine were a Faunus, considering how much time I've spent around him. Anyways, he's adopted, like Rhea.

But a nagging voice at the back of his mind disagreed. You don't know that for sure. If Rhea changed her name, why didn't Kaine? And the messages have never lied before. Nao frowned, digesting the possible truth of his own thoughts. Indeed, he couldn't think of a single instance when the graffiti painted onto the walls of the school had been untrue.

The floor underneath Nao's feet seemed to tilt sideways and he backed away from the scarlet letters. "That's not possible. It can't be..." Unbidden, memories began to rise to the forefront of his mind. Kaine jumping slightly whenever Nao or Sakura spoke to him for a week after that time they'd all gone out to a bar and his sister had told Rhea about what the Faunus had done to the Murasakis. The strange crescent shaped scars in Kaine's palms that Nao had never quite comfortable asking him about. How the spiky-haired boy was always checking his fingernails, and complaining about how fast they grew.

"No..." Nao felt his back hit the wall and slid down slowly to the floor. Kaine Oune, his friend, one of his best friends, was one of them. One of the half-animal monsters that had slaughtered his mother and stolen his father from him and his sister. And all this time, he'd fooled Nao and Sakura. He'd fought alongside them and acted like a human. Nao drew a shaky hand through his white hair, feeling quite sick. He closed his eyes and groaned. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

"Hey, you alright bro?" A familiar and unwelcome voice broke Nao out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see the one person he had no desire to meet at that moment standing over him. Fate was cruel, it seemed.

"You were gone a while-" Kaine began but the look on Nao's face must have signaled that something was wrong. He took a step toward Nao. "Is everything okay?"

"Don't touch me!" Nao scrambled to his feet. "You- you've been lying to me all this time!"

"Nao, what're you talking about?" Kaine frowned. "When have I lied to you?"

"You're a damn Faunus!" Nao shouted, pointing at the red paint on the opposite wall.

Kaine stopped short. "Oh." The color seemed to drain from the spiky-haired boy's face before it filled with rage. "Astarte." Kaine snarled.

Nao's blood ran cold. "What did you say?"

Kaine wasn't listening anymore. He'd turned around and had started walking down the hallway, toward the dorms. Nao realized with a start that Astarte must have known about Kaine's secret as well. Astarte must've found out somehow that Kaine was a Faunus. He must have been threatening her to keep quiet, only now that the secret's out, he's gonna kill her in revenge!

"No!" Nao shouted, sprinting after the Faunus and tackling him to the ground. "You stay away from my teammates!"

With an animalistic roar and inhuman strength, Kaine threw Nao off of him and into the wall. The white-haired boy didn't have time to activate his aura and the wind was driven from his lungs. As Nao struggled to catch his breath, Kaine pulled him to his feet and slammed him into the wall again, this time holding him up with one hand.

*SNIKT*

Long claws seemed to sprout from the ends of the fingers on Kaine's free hand and seemed to be glittering silver. Nao realized with alarm that the Faunus's claws imbued with Inertia would punch right through his aura in a short amount of time. He looked into Kaine's eyes, which were startlingly red. "Are you going to kill me?"

The question seemed to stop Kaine short, and he blinked, the scarlet rage fading from his eyes. The Faunus released Nao and staggered back, staring at his own hand in horror. "Oh gods... what just... not again..." Before Nao could react, Kaine bolted, sprinting down the corridor in the opposite direction from the way he'd been going previously. Nao watched in stunned shock as the other boy disappeared into the Emerald Forest.

* * *

 **Chapter 19: Broken Beacon**

* * *

As he'd once mentioned to his teammates, Brandaris Tyrian was not a welcome figure in most bars in Vale. Arresting many of the underage patrons of the city's drinking establishments certainly didn't endear the purple-haired policeman to that population, and so it was a rare occurrence for him to be seen in a taproom as a customer. Fortunately, the bartenders didn't care as much so long as he paid the tab.

Brandaris tilted his head back as he swallowed the contents of a shot glass. The liquor burned on the way down, but it was a welcome pain, unlike the headache that had been brewing in Brandaris's head for the past week. Sadly, the alcohol did nothing to ease that, nor the feeling of unease that was the cause of it.

"You know, I was always told a guy who drinks like that is trying to forget something."

Brandaris didn't even have to turn around to know who was speaking to him. After all, he was the one who had always said that to his junior officer. "I'll thank you not to throw my words back at me, Silver."

"Or what?" The younger man sat down on the bar stool next to Brandaris. "You'll report me to the teachers?"

Brandaris glared at Silver Rose, who was leaning against the counter with a crooked grin plastered over his face. Even in the dark taproom, the redhead's silver eyes shone brightly with glee. "Shouldn't you be happy I retired? You got promoted to my old position because of it."

"Don't get me wrong, the fatter paycheck is rather nice." Silver's grin grew even wider, if that was possible. "But I never once saw you drink while you were with the force. Is Beacon Academy really that hard?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." Brandaris scowled. "These days, I'm really starting to regret applying to the school."

"So why stay?" Silver arched a brow. "You know Captain Adel would give you your badge back in a heartbeat if you asked for it. Hell, she still lets you wear that jacket even though you're a civ now." He gestured at the white and purple jacket that matched the one he was wearing, the uniform of the Vale Police Department.

"Please, I make this look good, unlike you." Brandaris joked halfheartedly. "It's just... You remember Pete, right?"

"Course I do." Silver snorted at the mention of the rabbit Faunus, one of the less competent members of the law enforcement. "Who could forget Peter Scarletina? He's still an idiot, by the way."

"Yeah well, remember the time he got ratted out and we had to rescue him from the Triple Claws?"

"Just cause it was a rat Faunus..." Silver grumbled. "But yes, that was one hell of a firefight. What's your point?"

"That whole mess was Pete's fault; he should've covered his tracks better, and it cost us weeks of intel, but we still bailed his ass out."

"Well yeah, not like we were gonna leave him in the lurch." Silver frowned. "So you're saying you're sticking around for your teammates?" Though he'd never met the rest of Team BRCK in person, the silver-eyed policeman had heard enough about them from Brandaris to know they meant a lot to him.

"I mean, I kinda have to." Brandaris sighed. "Even if they don't listen to me off the battlefield, I'm still the leader of that bunch. And it's not just them either. Sure we might be on bad terms with them right now, but Team SAND are good people. Kinda messed up- actually really messed up in some cases, but I'd still trust them to have my back in a fight most days."

"What's the deal with them anyways?" Silver asked. "I've heard about all the rumors flying about the school lately that've gotten everyone's panties twisted... you didn't bang someone else's girlfriend, did you?"

"No, that was George, he had sex with Augusta or something- Anyways, they're not rumors." Brandaris ran a hand through his long purple hair. "Someone keeps writing messages on the walls, revealing people's secrets to everyone. Stuff like who's been sleeping with so and so, but also things like Nao going out at night to fight the Triple Claw Triad because he hates Faunus."

"Wait wait wait, your buddy Nao was the one who messed up all our sting operations two months ago?" Silver held up a hand. "Loads of people don't like the Faunus, but they don't just go and attack the Triple Claws, let alone beat the shit out of them."

"Yeah, that was his way of blowing off steam."

Silver let out a low whistle. "Damn, they really teach you how to fight at that school, huh?"

"That's the problem. Everyone's fighting each other now, partially because of the rumors, and partially because of Nao and Kaine."

"Why, what happened with them?"

"No one knows. Obviously they had a fight, and it was around the time Kaine was outed as a Faunus, so that's probably why, but neither of them has said anything about what happened."

"But how does that lead to everyone fighting?" Silver frowned. "I know you guys are the best teams in the school, but it's not like a spat between two friends is gonna split the entirety of Beacon in half, right?"

"Well, a bunch of people agree with Nao and think that Faunus are scum that shouldn't be allowed outside of Menagerie, and a lot of other people don't agree with them. Some of the Faunus feel that Kaine hiding that he was one of them for so long is wrong, the secrets keep coming out, it turns out Deynares's from Mantle, and you know everyone's still pissed at Mistral and Mantle from the war. Kaine's been acting all weird lately, he and Rhea actually fought to the point that they're not talking to each other, Team SAND refuses to listen to reason, and I don't know what to do!" Brandaris pounded the bar with his fist, making Silver jump and earning a glare from the barmaid.

"This may sound a little harsh, but... you don't need to." Silver offered after a moment of silence. "I mean, yeah you should try to patch things up between your teammates, but the rest of the school? Fuck 'em. Either they'll come around or they won't. It's not your responsibility to keep the peace."

"I wish it were that simple." Brandaris groaned. "At the rate things are going, there might not even be a school left in a few months."

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Obsidian Ophidian**

* * *

Among the latest rumors circulating throughout Beacon Academy, there was one that particularly interested Khai Obsidian. Apparently, there was a strange kind of Grimm prowling through the Emerald Forest. No one had ever seen it, but it left huge slashes on the trees that didn't match the claws of any other Creature of Grimm.

"Hello?" Khai called out into the forest. "Anyone here?" Nothing but silence answered him. He sighed. Clearly this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped. Still, the sniper was no fool, and he quickly found fresh claw marks on a nearby tree. The amount of red sap leaking from the wood confirmed that it had likely been cut less than an hour previously.

One tree led to another, and Khai was soon deep within the Emerald Forest, far beyond even the parts that the students had been thrown into during the initiation. "It's a good thing the trees can lead me back, otherwise I might never get out of here." He thought out loud.

A twig snapped behind him, and Khai whirled around, taking aim with the scope on his cane-rifle. A Beowolf charged out of the brush, but before Khai could fire off a shot, there was a flash of silver and the wolf's head rolled across the grassy forest floor to rest against his foot before dissolving into black ash.

"You shouldn't be here." Kaine growled, brushing off Grimm remains from his jacket. "There's a lot of dangerous things in the forest."

"That's what we train for." Khai shrugged. "And if that's the case, why're you here?"

"Just blowing off steam."

"Without your team?" Khai raised an eyebrow. "Or any kind of backup?"

Kaine gestured at the last vestiges of the Beowolf. "Don't need it."

"Maybe against one Grimm, but what if you get caught by a bunch of them at once? I don't think even you could take on that many. There's a reason Ozpin made us work in teams-"

"I don't want my team to be around me!" Kaine shouted. "I... They're better off without me."

"Why?" Khai crossed his arms. "Because you're a Faunus?"

"Oh, don't even get me started on that." Kaine snarled. "I'm sick of all those people in Beacon who think that just because I was born with claws, I have some obligation to be 'on their side'! I didn't ask to be a Faunus! I don't give a shit about their stupid fights in the cafeteria! Half the time, it's the Faunus who start them!"

"No one asks to be born anything." Khai fidgeted with his cane. "There's no shame in being a human or a Faunus. Only in hiding what you really are from those who care about you."

"What would you know about that?" Kaine snorted.

"More than you know." Khai smirked, running a forked tongue over his teeth. "Like you, I can easily pass as a human. But I never once hid it from my teammates."

Kaine stared openmouthed at his fellow Faunus.

"And you had even less reason to hide from your own team. One of them's your adopted sister, and I've never seen Brandaris or Deynares treat Faunus any differently from humans. You probably can't tell because you're always in the forest, but Team BRCK isn't the same without you."

Kaine remained silent for a long time. "You're right, Khai. But that's not why I'm keeping my distance."

"So what is it then?" Khai demanded. "Don't tell me whatever happened between you and Nao-"

"What do you think happened between me and Nao?" Kaine interrupted. "It wasn't just another fight, I nearly killed him! And it's not just him. I keep having these... visions."

"What kind of visions?" Khai asked slowly, wondering if his friend hadn't spent too much time in the forest.

"Violence. Death." Kaine grimaced. "I see myself killing people and Grimm in the most violent ways possible, and the worst part is, they can actually happen if I want them to. That's why I'm not afraid of any Grimm attacking me."

"These visions," Khai said after a few seconds. "do you ever attack your friends?"

"Especially my friends." Kaine closed his eyes."If I have any left, that is."

"Oh, you do." Khai quickly crossed the space between them to punch the other Faunus in the shoulder. "That's why I'm here."

A ghost of a smile flickered across Kaine's face before vanishing. "You shouldn't be."

Khai snorted loudly. "You know, you're not as dangerous as you think you are."

"Excuse me?" Kaine looked at Khai suspiciously. "Who kicked whose ass in combat practice?"

"Technically, Deynares beat me." Khai grinned. "And I knocked both of your swords out of your hands during our fight."

"But you still lost." Kaine grumbled.

"Yeah, but not by a whole lot." Khai's grin widened. "My point is, you're surrounded by trained fighters. Hell, if you ever attacked your own sister, you'd probably knock yourself out."

Kaine actually laughed out loud as he remembered the first time Rhea's Semblance had kicked in, during one of their sparring matches. "Yeah, probably." He visibly relaxed as he finally realized that he didn't have to worry. "Thanks, Khai."

"Ah, we all need someone to kick our asses sometimes." Khai grinned. "Now, how do we get out of here? Because I have no idea where we are."

"Just follow the claw marks, dumbass. I leave them there for a reason."

"No, really? I thought you just scratched up the trees because you're a cat."

"I'm not a cat! I think..."

* * *

 **Chapter 21: Mending Ties**

* * *

"What do you think we've gotten called in for now?" Drago asked. "It's not like we were fighting again."

"Don't know. Don't care." Astarte grunted. She wondered why her partner was so worried. After all, it wasn't as if they were in trouble because, like he had pointed out, Team SAND hadn't actually fought anyone in close to a week.

"Maybe the brickheads did something again." Nao yawned. "Wouldn't be the first time we're in hot water because of them."

"Whenever that happens, we're usually at fault too." Astarte pointed out. Nao's feud with BRCK was starting to annoy her. Personally, she had no problems with their now-rivals, but the white-haired boy was quick to blame all their problems on them even when it made no sense to do so. Emotions, Astarte decided, were definitely a weakness that she was glad that she didn't have.

"Whatever the problem is, we can handle it." Sakura said smoothly as they arrived at Ozpin's office. "Now, behave yourselves." She gave them all a pointed look as she knocked on the door.

"Come in."

One by one, the members of Team SAND entered the large circular room. As usual, the headmaster sat behind his large curved desk while heavy clockwork gears whirred and clicked overhead. Astarte and the rest of her team were quite familiar with the layout of the office by now, having been in this room four times in the last two weeks, usually along with the room's other current occupants.

"I knew it!" Nao shouted, pointing at Team BRCK, who were standing by Ozpin's desk. Astarte noted with interest that only Brandaris seemed to be paying attention to the situation, with the others seemed preoccupied with their thoughts, or in Kaine's case, softly kicking at the gray pillars that ringed the room. "Whatever they told you is a lie-" His angry rant was cut short by Sakura and Astarte simultaneously slapping the back of his head and causing the boy to fall to the floor, stunned.

"Don't be such a child." Sakura growled at her twin. "I apologize for that, headmaster."

"It's all right, Sakura." Ozpin sighed. "I daresay I've given Mr. Murasaki enough reason to be suspicious of being summoned to my office. Today however, you are not in trouble."

"Eh?" Nao sprang to his feet. "Wait, so why are we here then?"

"Last month, the eight of you volunteered to prepare the dance for the upcoming Vytal Festival. As you should remember, it was scheduled for next weekend." The silence and identical looks of horror on eight faces told Ozpin what he'd already known. The headmaster of Beacon Academy sighed in annoyance. "Well, I can see that you all needed a bit of a reminder. Now, onto a more somber topic. You've all done a very good job of holding it together for the past five days, I'm happy to say. However, keeping the peace is not an achievement for individuals like yourselves, it is a prerequisite."

"But Headmaster, we haven't-" Sakura began to protest, but Ozpin cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Ms. Murasaki, please do not take me for a doddering old fool, even if my hair is silver. It is quite clear from the state of things at Beacon that all is not well, especially between the two teams standing before me. Understand this, you eight are the most accomplished students in this school. Like it or not, your peers look to Teams BRCK and SAND as the standard by which they measure themselves. It is perhaps unfortunate that the staff, myself included, does as well. Had any of the other students caused as much trouble as you, they would no doubt have been expelled long ago."

"Students from the other three schools will be arriving this week. Unlike Shade, Haven, and Atlas, we do not have the luxury of choosing only the best to represent Beacon and all of Vale in the tournament." Ozpin rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Many of you may hail from the other kingdoms, but we all suffered from the war. The four academies, the Vytal Festival, those were integral parts of the peace treaty. As hard as it may be to believe, there are those who wish to see this experiment fail, to see the world embroiled in destruction and turmoil once more. Make no mistake, I do not wish for any of my students to fail in their endeavors. But if you cannot be a better example for your fellow students, I will make an example of you."

Clearly there was nothing more to be said after that. Silently, the eight teenagers filed out of the headmaster's office, walking together down the halls of the school for the first time in close to a month. Since classes were in session however, there was no one to see the near miracle. Somehow, the two teams managed to get all the way to Dan Braun's classroom without much incident.

Drago broke the silence first. "So... about this dance..."

"Alcohol?" Kaine and Nao asked at the same time. The two boys looked at each other with a mixture of horror and bemusement.

"Absolutely not!" Rhea looked scandalized. "Someone's gonna get drunk, and then they'll start fighting, completely undermining any idea of peace and stability like the headmaster just said!"

"She does have a point." Sakura agreed, ignoring her teammates' protests. "With the current situation of the school being what it is, it would be unwise to allow any sparks to fly near the proverbial Dust keg."

"Alcohol or not though, there's bound to be some trouble." Brandaris shook his head. "There's at least one fight every day because of the messages on the walls. I don't know if we can resolve that in a week."

"We can." Astarte decided to lay down her cards. "I have an idea."

"What, breaking the legs of everyone who starts a fight?" Deynares grinned.

"I like that idea, but no." Astarte reluctantly admitted. "I might have an idea about who's writing all the messages, but I need a little more time to confirm my theory. Besides, we should be in class."

"Right then. We should meet up by our dorms after classes are finished." Brandaris looked to Sakura. "If that's alright with you guys?"

"We'll be there." Sakura said in a tone that threatened all her teammates with bodily harm if they dared to disobey her.


End file.
